Just Won't Die 12: Asuka
by OneShot
Summary: This is mostly a Ranma/Neon Genesis Evangelion/Marvel crossover. Ranma enjoys adventuring and, once again, goes on yet another adventure, this time to the world of Marvel, Asuka in accompaniment, to find some adamantium.


Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong

Just Won't Die 12: Asuka

6/6

Asuka was on her way to her next class on campus, on the other side of

campus no less, when a young man approached her.

"Hi there," the man said.

Asuka regarded the young man for a moment. He looked to be around a year older

than her, around the age of twenty one.

The man was handsome, but much more handsome than most of the males students

that constantly approach her. It was understandable. Since men consider beauty

very high on their priority list of potential girls, they are instantly

attracted to someone beautiful like Asuka.

"Hi," Asuka said with a rather dismissive tone.

"I'm Dustin," the man said, regarding Asuka longer than

she cared to acknowledge.

"Asuka," she said, figuring she should at least be nice in return. Deep down

inside, she was sick and tired of guys constantly hitting on her.

"It's nice to meet you," the man said.

"Likewise I guess," Asuka didn't seem interested.

"I've never seen you around here before," the man said, "Are you a freshman?

What's your major?"

Asuka had heard that line before, "It's odd that you say that. I've been

walking down this path every day since the Fall semester. And no, I'm not a

freshman. I'm a senior,"

It would be considered a bit odd that a person as young as Asuka was already a

senior in college, but because she excelled in her academics and constantly took

extra credits, she would be graduating ahead of schedule.

"A senior? Wow," the man said, "Same as me,"

Asuka shrugged.

"So, what's your major?" that man asked.

Asuka spotted one of her classmates for the next class a short distance away.

"Sorry, but I'm really busy and I hafta go," Asuka said, "My friend's waiting

for me,"

"Oh," the man seemed disappointed, "I guess I'll see you around,"

"Okay," Asuka muttered before rushing off.

She ran the short distance between her and her friend.

"Tomiko," Asuka called out.

The girl named Tomiko turned around and was surprised to see Asuka.

"Oh, Asuka, hey, what's up?" Tomiko greeted her.

Tomiko was a pretty girl of twenty-three. She had wavy brown hair and wore

glasses. She started attending college two years later than most people, having

spent her first two years out of high school traveling abroad. Although a native

Japanese, her worldly travels made her very fluent in several languages. She

could speak conversational German with Asuka if need be. However, Asuka spoke to

her mostly in Japanese.

"Ready for?" Tomiko asked, "I'm a bit worried about the upcoming test,"

Asuka nodded, "Yeah, I'm worried a little bit,"

"You? Worried?" Tomiko was surprised. This was because everyone knew Asuka was

by far the best student of the class, constantly getting the highest grades in

all of the quizzes and tests.

"Hey, I may do well in my test and such, but those grades

don't come easy," Asuka commented.

"If you say so," Tomoki laughed.

The two of them walked together toward their next class when they spotted

Ranma walking across a giant field. It was a funny sight because Ranma was

walking across the middle of the field while the school's soccer team was in

the middle of their practice and had to stop what they were doing while he

crossed. The fact that he didn't seem to care one bit about annoying every

single soccer player made it all the more funny.

Asuka was a bit surprised to see Ranma around campus around now. He could

usually be seen walking around later in the day, around the time when she and

Rei were done with their last class.

"Hey, it's that Ranma guy," Tomiko said, pointing.

Asuka turned toward Tomiko in surprise, "Y-you know him?"

"No, but I've seen him around before," Tomiko replied,

"He runs that dojo not too far from here,"

"Yeah," Asuka said.

Tomiko, nor anyone for that matter, knew that Asuka lived with Ranma. She

tried to keep that secret because, as much as she hated to admit it, she knew if

people knew she lived with Ranma, they would not leave her alone and ask her a

ton of questions about him.

Why the hell is Ranma considered this town's most eligible bachelor, Asuka

thought. He's mean, and he's stupid, and he's a jerk. If all the women in this

town knew the real Ranma, they'd run away from him as fast as

possible.

"C'mon, we better hurry and head to class," Asuka said, not wanting Ranma to

spot her.

As if God, or Urd, or Ranma, or whoever God of the universe was at the moment,

was working against her, she heard Ranma's voice.

"Hey, Asuka," Ranma called out to her.

Damn, Asuka swore under her breath.

"Whoa, he's calling out your name," Tomiko's voice was full of surprise, "You

and Ranma know each other?"

"Um, more or less," Asuka said, dreading the encounter.

Asuka knew she was never going to get used to Ranma's personality, no matter

what. He was too unpredictable. He could say the smartest and stupidest thing in

a single breath, in the same sentence.

This was a guy who have seriously 'fucked' up worlds simply because he showed

up there. But then again, he was also the same guy that had saved worlds. Urd,

God, considered him walking chaos. ONLY someone like Ranma could

give God ulcers.

"Hey, Asuka-chan," Ranma smiled happily, "What's up?"

Asuka didn't bother to express her annoyance at him calling her Asuka-chan. It

wasn't as if anything was going to stop him from doing whatever he wanted. Deep

down insides, she was glad he was on their side and not an enemy. As annoying as

he could be at times, she was sure this world slept better knowing Ranma was one

of the good guys. Of course, the term 'good guy' should be used loosely.

"We're on our way to class," Asuka said, "And we're going

to be late,"

Ranma turned toward Tomiko, "Hi. I'm Ranma,"

"I know," Tomiko said, a bit flushed, "Um, I'm Tomiko,"

Asuka muttered something to herself when she noticed the blushing on Tomiko's

cheeks. Why the hell do girl always blush when they see Ranma, she thought.

It's as if they seemingly fall head over heels over this guy at first sight.

"Nice t'meetcha," Ranma smiled, "You Asuka-chan's friend?"

"You and Asuka know each other?" Tomiko asked curiously.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"

No, don't say anything else, Asuka thought.

"Asuka and I know each other really well," Ranma said, placing an arm around

her.

"Wow," Tomiko gasped.

The blood drained from Asuka's face. Her quiet college life as of now had just

ended. Once word got out that she lived with Ranma, every girl would be

barraging her with questions, like what kind of girls he liked. Girls around

campus had noticed her and Ranma talking to each other at times, but she usually

dismissed their questions with something like. Sure, Ranma could be seen talking

to her, but that was usually after she was done with classes, when all the

people from her classes had gone home long ago.

Just for the heck of it, Ranma decided to role-play. This was what Asuka hated

about Ranma, the fact that he was so unpredictable.

"We lived together," Ranma grinned.

Asuka pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I can't believe this is happening to me,"

Asuka was fuming when she came back home later that day.

Because of what Ranma had said, rumors got spread through classroom, no thanks

Tomiko. Tomorrow she would have to deal with her classmates from her earlier

classes since they would know as well. She knew that she would now have

to deal with all those doting girls wanting to know everything there was about

Ranma. Because there was no indication that she and Ranma were seeing each

other, those girls would think Ranma was up for grabs.

Asuka felt even more angry at Ranma than usual. She was so angry at him that

she ended up throwing her backpack at him as he slept on the couch. As to why he

seemed to sleep on the couch, in the middle of the day for that matter, instead

of the bed in his room, was something no one could understand.

"Ranma you jerk!" Asuka shouted at him.

The backpack hit him in the face and ended up flipping up over the back of the

couch, landing right on the night stand next to it and knocking over the

lampshade resting on it.

Ranma didn't even budge, sleeping right through that assault. This was because

Ranma had gone through so much that only something short of an N2 mine blowing

up in his face would faze him.

That made Asuka even more angry.

She headed toward the kitchen to fetch a glass of cold water.

"Welcome back," Akane was in the kitchen. She was getting ready to prepare

dinner, busy chopping some vegetables.

At the moment, Akane had a big smile on her face. Perhaps it was because of

the comment Ranma had made earlier, that her cooking had gotten so good that it

reminded him of Kasumi's cooking. She considered that a great compliment.

It was amazing how far along she had come in terms of cooking. Then again, she

had been cooking and improving for over the past ten years.

When she noticed Asuka seemed angry, she asked, "Is something the matter?"

Asuka proceeded to fill up a cup of cold water.

"Lettme guess, Ranma," Akane went back to cutting her vegetables.

"It's always him," Asuka said.

Akane laughed inwardly. As long as Ranma didn't do

something like actually hurt Asuka's feelings, she knew Ranma was just teasing.

It was in his nature. Now that Akane thought about it, she realized Ranma did

that to her when she was young. It was only natural that with age, Asuka would

start realizing that it wasn't worth it to get angry at Ranma anymore. Ranma did

tease Asuka, yes, but never in a vicious and lampooning sort of way.

Finished filling up her cup with cold water, Asuka headed for the livingroom,

intent on giving Ranma a rude awakening.

When she entered the room, she noticed Ranma was awake and was now sitting

upright in the couch, watching television. The television was displaying some

anime show she didn't recognize nor cared to watch.

"You're awake," Asuka felt disappointed, having really wanted to splash Ranma

awake.

Ranma tapped his forehead, "Wow, I guess that's why

you're graduating sooner than most people. You have a keen perception of the

obvious,"

Asuka contemplated splashing Ranma while he was awake but ended up choosing

against it.

"Besides, my favorite show's on," Ranma said, leaning back, "Also, that

backpack you threw at me did the trick in waking me up,"

"Good," Asuka said, "I hope it hurt, especially what you did to me in school

today,"

Ranma regarded Asuka for a moment, "Did what?"

"You know exactly what," Asuka said.

"Forget it," Ranma went back to watching television, "I

can't stand you females with your ambiguous words. 'If you don't know what you

did wrong, then I'm not going to tell you'. Why dontcha put on a dress and ask

something like 'Do I look fat in this dress?' while you're at it?"

"Hmph," Asuka turned around and left the room, figuring it was better to let

Ranma anguish at not knowing what he did wrong than to flat-out tell him.

Ranma watched Asuka's back as she left the room before shaking his head in

annoyance.

"Women, you can't live with 'em. Period," Ranma said, turning back to his

television.

He heard the sounds of knuckles cracking from behind him.

"And what do you mean by that?" he heard Akane's voice.

Asuka stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom as she lay in bed.

"Something the matter?" Asuka's younger self, Asuka-chan, her roommate, asked

curiously.

"What do you think?" Asuka answered wryly.

"Ranma again," Asuka-chan stated. It was a comment, not a question, "How come

he annoys you so much? He doesn't seem like that bad a guy. But then again, I

only recently met him,"

"I guess it's because you don't know him like I do," Asuka sighed, "He annoys

the hell out of me. What makes me wonder is how come he doesn't pick on you but

picks on me, especially when we are essentially the exact same person

except for the age difference,"

Asuka-chan shrugged, "I don't know,"

Asuka chuckled slightly, "Perhaps he's leaving you alone because he's having

more fun watching you chase after baka-Shinji,"

"Will you quit calling him baka-Shinji?" Asuka-chan said, "You weren't there

to see all the amazing things he's done,"

Asuka shivered, "But this is Shinji's we're talking about. It creeps me out at

the thought that, due to different circumstances, I could possibly like someone

like Shinji,"

Asuka-chan shrugged, "So what if I like him. If you don't like the fact that I

like Shinji, tough,"

Asuka shook her head in annoyance. Perhaps it was because

she was a little bit older that she was able to realize it was useless arguing

with her younger. They both had confrontational personalities and that was not a

good combination. Only because she was older and wiser that such conflicts

didn't occur.

"How's school?" Asuka asked.

"Same as always," Asuka-chan muttered, "Man, I can't wait to be in college.

All these high school boys annoy me. I only like guys much older than me, like

Shinji's age,"

Asuka rubbed at the headache she was developing. It was one thing dealing with

Ranma's annoying antics. It was another having to deal with her younger self

seemingly infatuated with the one guy she found every bit as annoying as Ranma.

"You do know Shinji and Emiko are 'engaged', right?"

Asuka smirked, "That means they're probably going to be getting married sometime

down the line,"

"I don't care," Asuka-chan said, "I'm not worried. I know it isn't going to

work out for the two of them. All I have to do is wait,"

"Ugh, I just wanna puke," Asuka said, "This is so gross...my younger self

liking baka-Shinji,"

"Whatever," Asuka-chan said.

At that moment, the phone rang. Asuka-chan was closest to the phone so she

picked it up before her older self could.

"Hello?" she asked. "Yes, but which Asuka? College-Asuka or High School-

Asuka?"

After a second, Asuka-chan turned toward Asuka and handed her the phone.

"It's for you," she stated, "She says her name's Erin and that she's one of

your classmates,"

Asuka reluctantly took hold of the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hi, Asuka? This is Erin. I'm in your Signals class,"

Asuka sighed. This was the forth phone call of the day. She already knew what

the reason for the phone call was.

"How come you're calling me?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"I heard that you and Ranma live together," the voice said, "Is Ranma your

boyfriend?"

"No," Asuka answered.

"Is he seeing anyone?" came the expected question.

"No," she replied, "Anyway, I'm sorry, but you called at a bad time. I'm in

the middle of doing my homework,"

"Oh, okay," the voice said, "Perhaps we can talk in class tomorrow,"

"Fine, whatever," Asuka dismissed it, "Talk to your tomorrow. Later,"

After Asuka hung up the phone, she picked up her pillow and buried her face in

it and yelled as loud as she could.

"Ranma, you jerk! it's all your fault!" Asuka's voice was muffled under

the pillow.

At that very moment, Ranma was in the bathroom urinating. When he suddenly

sneezed, he missed the bowl completely, urine going everywhere but in the bowl.

What was even worse was that some of it landed on that shower rug in front of

the sink.

Ranma scratched his head with his free hand.

"Man, my aim's off more than usual today,"

Asuka noticed a weird smell when she was taking a shower at night. She usually

took her shower around then, around a few hours before she would be going to

sleep.

"What the heck's that smell?" she asked herself.

"I missed earlier today," Ranma said, "I didn't miss enough to make a puddle

so I left it alone,"

Asuka's shrieked in surprised when she heard Ranma's voice.

"Ranma, what are you doing in here?" Asuka shouted through the shower door

at Ranma.

"Brushing my teeth," Ranma said, "Don't worry, I won't use the cold water so

you won't hafta worry about needing to jump out from under the scolding water

and letting me see you naked. Then again, it's not like I haven't seen you

naked before countless times,"

"Get out!" Asuka shouted.

"Why? It's my house," Ranma replied with a mischievious tone.

"It's because you say stuff like that that makes me want to move out and get

my own place," Asuka said out of anger. It wasn't as if she meant it but she had

thought about it several times. Aside from having to deal with Ranma's

antics, and dealing with the constant confusion of having two 'Asuka' living

under the same roof, living there was a very enjoyable experience.

"Really?" Ranma's voice seemed genuinely surprised, "You wanna move out?"

"Hmph, yeah," Asuka replied, knowing there was no real way of retracting her

statement. But then again, perhaps she can use it to her advantage, "It's

because you're constantly annoying the hell outta me. I can't stand it,"

"If you move out, is it gonna be just you alone or you and 'Bob'?" came

Ranma's unpredictable answer.

"I'd hafta discuss it with her," Asuka said, surprised that Ranma could tell

which Asuka he was talking to since he couldn't actually see her behind the

shower door.

'Bob' was the name Ranma labeled Asuka's younger version. Since he liked

calling Asuka by the pet name, Asuka-chan, it would create confusion since

everyone already got used to Asuka's younger self being referred to as Asuka-

chan. Instead, Ranma referred to the younger Asuka as 'Bob', which left he the

option of calling older Asuka by the pet name he usually called her, Asuka-chan.

All in all, having two Asuka's living under the same roof was both confusing

and hard to explain to people.

"I guess you won't be hearing any arguments from me. It's your decision,

afterall," Ranma said, leaving the bathroom.

Asuka stood in front of the stream of warm water, wondering the significance

of those words.

Did Ranma really want her to move out?

Asuka sat by the window edge and gazed out toward the stars above that night.

For some odd reason, she found it rather relaxing. Little did she know that

being in contact with Ranma for so long had caused her to subconsciously

mimic some of his quirks.

At night, when there wasn't much to do, Ranma could be seen laying on the

rooftop gazing up at the skies, sometimes even falling asleep up there. Of

course, it wasn't as if he needed to sleep, but that didn't mean he couldn't

sleep if he wanted to. It had come to be known that Ranma slept whenever he

wanted to pass some time.

"I wonder if he's up there right now," she asked herself.

She bonked her head, wondering why Ranma suddenly popped into her mind. She

turned her attention away from the skies and toward her younger self as she lay

on her bed finishing up the rest of her high school homework.

"Hey," Asuka called out.

"Yeah?" Asuka-chan didn't bother looking up from her textbook.

"Has it ever crossed your mind to move out?" Asuka asked.

Asuka-chan shook her head, "No. I just got here. What, am I supposed to move

out?"

"No, I was merely curious," Asuka shrugged.

"What, you're thinking of moving out?" the young girl asked, "Where do you

plan on moving out to? Are you going to live alone or with someone?"

"I haven't given it much thought," Asuka said, "It merely crossed my mind and

I was curious. That's all,"

At that point in time, Asuka realized that if she were to move out, she would

be moving out on her own.

Asuka sighed as she wondered how much of a pain her college life was going to

be as she headed toward school. The moment she entered her first classroom, all

the females would be approaching her to ask her tons of questions about

her relationship with Ranma.

Wanting to keep her mind occupied, Asuka slowed down as she walked passed the

car dealership that was on her way to school.

Every time she passed by, she would slow down and look in at the beautiful

cars on display, especially the beautiful red classic convertible that was

located in the center of the showroom floor. Although she didn't know much about

cars, she knew that car pre-dated the year 2000. The mere fact that it

exclusively used a gas-power combustion engine was a good indication.

She sighed. She wanted a car. But that would never be since she couldn't

afford one. Sure, she received a rather generous weekly allowance from Akane and

Ranma, but it would take a long time to save enough for a car.

Shinji had his own car, but that was because he used the money he earned from

his boxing career to do so. As to Shinji's choice of car, Asuka could not

understand why he bought a used car, a junker that needed a serious fix-up.

"It's just as fun fixing a car as it is to drive one,"

Shinji had commented when she expressed her disdain at Shinji's poor choice for

transportation.

Asuka assumed it was some kind of guy thing, to like working on cars and

getting dirty. However, she couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy when she

looked in the house garage and saw Shinji thoroughly enjoying working on

the car. Working on his car seemed really enjoyable to Shinji and it made her

wonder if it was as fun as it looked.

She let out an annoyed breath as it dawned on her that Shinji was actually

growing up faster than her. Shinji had taken over the dojo, made an exuberant

amount of money boxing, and would most likely be buying his own house in

the near future. And at such a young age too.

At least the knowledge that Rei was in the same boat as her made her feel a

bit better. Rei simply attended college, much like her.

"Hi there," came a male voice.

Asuka sighed. Yet another guy to hit on her. This was really annoying.

"What do you want?" she turned toward the man.

"Whoa, I was just only saying hi," the man said.

Asuka regarded him for a moment and noticed that it was that guy she saw the

other day.

"Hi, remember me?" the man smiled.

"Yeah...Billy Bob, right?" Asuka asked, choosing a random name.

"No, it's Dustin," the man said, wondering where the heck that name came from.

"Whatever," Asuka didn't really care.

"On your way to campus?" the man asked.

"Perhaps," Asuka said coldly.

"Same here," the man offered, "How about we walk together?"

"No thanks," she dismissed him, "I'll be fine by myself,"

"Are you sure?" the man persisted.

"Leave me the hell alone," Asuka snapped, "I'm sick and tired of guys

constantly hitting on me. You have no idea how annoying it is,"

"Jeez," the man took a step back, "I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone,"

"Good," Asuka said, oddly satisfied at watching the man as he quickly

retreated.

Asuka felt a bit better now. Perhaps she simply needed to vent out some

frustration. Ranma had seriously annoyed her yesterday and she hadn't had a

chance to vent until today.

When the guy was long gone, she turned her attention back toward the car she

had been looking at originally.

At that moment, she felt something slap her butt hard which caused her to yelp

out in surprise more than pain. She didn't need to look to know who it was. Only

one person would dare do something like that.

"What do you want, Ranma?" she said in annoyance.

"I was on my way to visit Nene when I saw you," Ranma said, "I figured I'd say

hi,"

Asuka wondered why Ranma seemed to visit Nene so often. He visited her more

than any of the other girls. It made her wonder more on what had occurred

between Nene and Ranma during the time they went to that other world together

and brought back Bateau and Motoko.

"Well, you said hi, so I guess it's best you leave then," Asuka began walking

down the street toward campus.

"I noticed you lookin' at that convertible in there," Ranma smiled, "What, you

interested in that car?"

"What ever gave you that idea?" Asuka lied. If Ranma knew she liked that car,

he would most likely tease her about it.

"Dunno, probably because every time you walk by that car dealership, you stop

for a moment to look at that car," Ranma commented.

Asuka said nothing. How did Ranma know? Was he spying on her?

"If you really want that car, I can get it for you," Ranma said sincerely.

This was what annoyed Asuka so much. Ranma could be the most annoying and nicest

person at the very same time.

Asuka didn't really know what to say for a few moments, shocked at gesture.

"All I need to do is find get a blue print of the car and we can start

building it right away," he said, "It'll take us a while to built an exact

replica, but it's doable,"

"We?" Asuka asked, "What do you mean by we?"

"It'll be our lil project," Ranma smiled warmly, "We can work on the car

together,"

"Um, in case you're wondering, I don't have this weird interest with cars like

you and Shinji have," Asuka waved her hand dismissively, "It's some stupid guy

thing to like cars and building stuff,"

"Whatcha talking about?" Ranma was surprised to hear such a comment, "It's not

a guy thing. For your information, Lisa, Skuld, Ritsuko, Nene, Sylia, and Priss

have an interest in this as well,"

"T-they do?" Asuka asked. This was news to her.

Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He unfolded it

and handed it to Asuka.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It's a piece of paper," Ranma grinned.

"I know you idiot," Asuka snapped, "But what's it for?"

"It's an advertisement for this contest," Ranma grinned, "Some car company is

sponsoring this contest where regular people are expected to build the greatest

car possible. The winner wins a million yen. Here's the catch, these cars

needs to be powered by a combustion engine no larger than 2.0 liters,"

"2.0 liters? Isn't that really small, even by combustion engine sake?" Asuka

said.

"Heh, for a girl who don't seem to care much about cars, you seem to already

know more about cars than any average person since very few people know anything

about combustion engines, let alone the fact that 2.0 liters is really small,"

Ranma grinned, "I'm on my way to see Nene and the others. Since they like this

kind of stuff, I'm sure they'll be interested in taking part in such a contest.

In a sense, the timing is perfect. We can build the car for the contest, and

after we're done, you can have it. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard making the car

look like the car you were looking at,"

"Y-you can do that?" Asuka asked, her voice sounding a bit happy.

Ranma chuckled, "How can we not? In case you've forgotten, we've saved worlds

before. How hard is it to build a car? I'm sure it's easier,"

"That'd be great!" Asuka jumping up and down happily. When she realized that

she was acting like some super-giddy high school girl, she stopped what she was

doing and cleared her throat.

"Well, I gotta get going," Ranma said, "We only have a month for this contest

so we hafta all get cracking right away,"

"Um, okay," Asuka said, "Well, I better get going to school,"

"See y'later," Ranma headed off.

"Later," Asuka said.

Asuka had a big smile as she headed off toward school, already having

completely forgotten that she was supposed to be angry at Ranma.

Of course, when she made it to her first class and was barraged with question

about him, she would surely be reminded that she was supposed to be angry at

him.

"What's it like living with him?"

"Have you ever seen him naked?"

"Does he walk around in his underwear like I've heard all guys do?"

Those were just a few of the random questions Asuka's classmates asked her.

"Will you guys please leave me alone?" Asuka said, "All those questions you're

asking me, that's for me to know and you to find out on your own,"

She figured that was a good enough answer to all the questions at once. She

couldn't understand why so many girls knew about Ranma and details about his

personal life. Sure, he's very handsome. But he was also a jerk. What was

it about Ranma that appealed him to members of the opposite sex?

At that moment, the professor entered the classroom and everyone took their

seats.

Asuka couldn't help but feel elated when the class commenced.

Now she could return to being angry at Ranma.

Asuka was on her way from school that evening when she spotted Ranma standing

among a large group of people. Approaching the group, she came to realize that

he was with Lisa, Nene, Ritsuko, Sylia, Priss, and Bateau. They were

all standing out in front of the car dealership where she and Ranma had bumped

into each other earlier.

Ranma was holding and looking inside a small booklet that had a picture of a

car in front of it.

"Now that we've got the dimensions and specs of the car, we need to go about

getting the parts," she heard Ranma say.

"Asuka," Ritsuko was the first to notice her.

"Um, hey guys, what's up?" Asuka approached the group curiously.

"Ah, Asuka, what a surprise," Ranma said, "I was wondering what happened to

you,"

"I stayed after class for a short while," she replied, "I

had to talk to the professor about the grade he gave me for the test I took

yesterday,"

"What, you messed up a question and wanted to contest it?" Ranma smirked.

"No, for your information, the professor didn't realize that I had did all the

work for the test on the other side of the test and that I was supposed to get

full credit," Asuka said.

Ranma said, "Okay,"

"What are you guys doing gathered here?" she asked.

"Ranma explained this contest," Priss said, "And we're all interested in

taking part in it,"

Ranma jerked a thumb toward Bateau and Motoko, "Bat-man and Moto-chan here are

interested in taking part,"

"Will you quit calling me that?" Bateau said to Ranma coldly.

"It seems like Bateau's got quite a bit of knowledge of combustion engines,"

Ranma said, "He and Lisa's gonna work together at designing the engine and

keeping it within the specified specs for the contest,"

Several of the girls smirked at one another, knowing where that could lead.

Ever since Bateau came with Ranma back to this world, he had been hanging out

with Lisa quite a lot. It was understandable since Bateau was basically

completely cybernetic, very much possessing a supped-up boomer body by

this world's standards, and Lisa was the only one capable of upgrading and

keeping his body in perfect working order.

Most of the girls secretly believe Bateau was suffering from a weird case of

'Florence Nightengale Syndrome', a syndrome used to describe these cases where a

patient fell for his or her doctor or nurse.

Ever since Bateau and Motoko came to this world, they had acquired a job

working at a newly developed section of AD Police Headquarters that was

specifically designed to battle cyber terrorism, a newly budding problem in this

world. Since Motoko and Bateau was so skilled at what they did back on the other

world, doing the same kind of job here was pathetically easy. And because of

that, they spent very little time working.

Funnily enough, they did generally did grunt work since they had to start at

the bottom and work their way up the ladder.

Since they couldn't resort to using the advanced technology built within their

bodies to solve their crimes or risk being exposed that they were 'boomers',

they had to have their bodies reconfigured to hide the interface jack

ports located on the back of their necks.

Also, they had to have their bodies fixed back up and the

nano-computers replaced to prevent the Ghost Whitening disease they currently

suffered, the Alzheimer's Disease version of cybernetic bodies.

Doing such insanely difficult procedures was something only someone of Lisa's

skill could perform. Since Lisa did the difficult task, Bateau seemed to have

developed a resounding respect for her talents as well as some kind of

high school crush on her, what the crew seem to consider the 'Florence

Nightengale Syndrome'. Everyone but Lisa and Bateau seem to have noticed this.

"Anyway, Bateau and Lisa will be working on building the engine," Ranma said,

"Ritsuko and Nene will be working on developing the engine management, the ECU

device,"

"ECU?" Asuka asked.

"The electronic control unit," Ritsuko said, "It's basically the brain of the

car,"

"Priss and Sylia offered to work on all the other miscellaneous components,"

Ranma said, "And last but not least, you and I are expected to create the

chassis,"

"What?" Asuka's eyes widened, "I'm going to be working with you?"

"Yep," Ranma said, "Hey, you're gonna be the one getting the car after all of

this. What, you think you can just sit on your butt while we do all the work? I

don't think so,"

"But-" Asuka began.

"No buts,"

Ranma opened the garage that night, Asuka standing right next to him.

The garage opened to reveal the front of the beat up station wagon Ranma had

bought long ago and had installed that engine Priss had given him long ago.

"Why don't you enter this car in the contest?" Asuka asked, giving the bumper

a light kick, "That engine Priss gave you is a combustion engine, right?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, but it's a 6-liter engine. We need to use a 2-liter

engine,"

"Oh," Asuka said, "I guess you have a point. I forgot about that restriction,"

"We don't hafta worry about it," Ranma said, "We're in charge of making the

chassis, the structural body of the car, the skeleton of the car,"

Asuka regarded Ranma for a moment, "Just curious, when did you suddenly get

all smart with stuff like cars and such? I've never seen you interested in cars

before that station wagon came along,"

Ranma said, "I haven't until then. But when I was working on the station

wagon, I liked it so I got more interested in it and read up on it. Besides,

with what we'll be doing, we'll be learning as we go along,"

"W-what do you expect me to do?" Asuka asked, "I don't want to do this.

Working on the chassis? Doesn't that require welding and such? I know nothing

about that,"

"No problem, I'll teach you,"

"What have I gotten myself into?" Asuka muttered as she flopped down on her

bed.

Asuka-chan looked up from her textbook, "Whatcha talking about?"

"Ranma expects me to work with him on building a chassis for a car," Asuka

replied, "I think I'm expected to do stuff like welding,"

"Why?" the young girl asked.

"Because, there's this contest Ranma and several of the girls are taking part

in, to make a car with a small combustion engine," Asuka stated, "And it's

expected that I get the car after the contest. The problem is that I'm

expected to work on the car doing something I have no idea how to, and with

Ranma no less,"

"Oh, that's not good. You and Ranma, working together," Asuka-chan said.

"I'd really like to have a car for my own, but I wonder if having to do this

is worth it," Asuka said.

"Well, if you don't want to, then don't," Asuka-chan said logically.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point, and I really don't want to work with Ranma. I

know it'll be Hell if I do," Asuka commented.

"Maybe you should give it a try," Asuka-chan suggested, "Who knows, maybe it

won't be as bad as you originally think,"

"Fine, I'll give it a try," Asuka said, "It couldn't hurt,"

"Do you know anything about cars?" Asuka-chan asked, pretty sure she knew the

answer.

"Nothing really," Asuka replied.

"Same here," Asuka-chan smirked, "Maybe it's best you study up on it and at

least get to know more about it. It'd be kinda weird working with Ranma on

something when you have no real idea what you're working on,"

"I know," Asuka said, "I think I'm gonna go pay Lisa a visit tomorrow early in

the morning,"

"For what?" Asuka-chan asked.

"To ask her to give me a crash course on cars and how they really work,"

Asuka woke up early the next day, so early that Ranma was surprised to see

her.

"Aren't we up a bit early this morning?" Ranma said. He had been sitting on

the stairway, busy putting on his shoes, when a fully dressed Asuka came walking

down.

"Of to your morning jog?" Asuka asked.

"As always," Ranma grinned, "Care to join me?"

"No way," Asuka said, "I've heard about how you do twenty mile warm-up jogs.

That's something I definitely know I'm not interested in doing,"

"Suit yourself," he said, "So, how come you're up so early? You usually sleep

in late. Your first class doesn't start until eleven. You usually wake up at ten

to take your shower, catch a quick breakfast, and then head out the door,"

Asuka found herself a bit surprised that Ranma knew her so well.

"I wanted to go see Lisa about something," Asuka said.

Ranma looked at his watch, "Well, if you are, then you better hurry on over to

her work soon because she'll probably be getting off pretty soon and heading

off,"

Lisa was a complete night owl. She worked with Ritsuko at her company and

usually worked from around ten at night until six in the morning before heading

home and sleeping away her morning and a bit of her afternoon.

"Whatcha need to talk to her about?" he asked.

"Just a few questions," Asuka said, "Nothing too important. Girls stuff,"

"Okay," Ranma seemed disinterested, "Well, I'll walk you,"

"Um, no need, I'll go alone," Asuka said, heading toward the door.

Ranma followed closely behind, "Don't worry about it. It's no problem. I'm

heading out the door anyway,"

Asuka realized it was useless to decline, "Fine,"

Together, the two of them headed out of the door.

"So, how's school coming along?" he asked shortly after they left the house.

"It's coming along fine," she answered.

"You're doing fine in your classes?" he asked.

She nodded, "Like always,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma's voice was sincere.

This was what constantly gave Asuka a conflict of interest. Deep down inside,

it was moments like this that made her consider Ranma a genuinely nice guy. It

was all the times when he teased her that made her think otherwise. It was as if

he could be a two-faced person right in front of her face.

"It seems like you've adjusted really well to this world," Ranma smiled, "From

the way things look, no one would ever've guessed that you weren't a native to

this world,"

Asuka shrugged, "This world is very much like my own,"

"Do you ever miss your own world?"

"What's there to miss?" she replied, "It's not like I had any family or anyone

there to miss me. No one'll miss me so what's the use of me even existing on

that world,"

Asuka stopped herself from saying whatever else she was about to say, shocked

that Ranma had accidentally put a chink in the icy armor.

Ranma looking at her intently made her realized that that comment didn't

escape his ears.

"What about your friends on that world?" he asked, "Surely they should miss

you,"

"Perhaps," Asuka said after a moment, "But they'll never know what really

happened to me. Keep in mind everything that happened to Nerv was covered up by

the government. I'm pretty sure that that whole world thinks the others and I

are the people responsible for the destruction of Nerv,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma said.

"Now that I think about it, it kind of annoys me that people don't know the

truth," Asuka commented.

"That's life," Ranma said.

"Does that ever bother you?" Asuka asked, "Y'know, that people don't really

know what you've done? Doesn't it bother you that only a select few people know

that you've done stuff like, literally, saving worlds?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Doesn't bother me at all,"

"Why not?" she asked.

Ranma shrugged, "I don't know. I guess after you've been through what I've

been through, your way of thinking changes,"

Asuka didn't really understand what Ranma was saying but decided to take it at

face value.

Together, they continued indulging in conversation, something that seemed to

come very easy for the two of them. Oddly enough, of all the people in Ranma's

life, Asuka was easily the easiest person for Ranma to talk to.

"What's a horsepower?" Lisa scratched her head. She was sitting in front of a

computer looking at a wire-diagram of what a combustion engine looked like.

"That's approximately 746 watts," Bateau answered.

"Like that helps any," Lisa gave a shy smile.

"Think of it as 550 foot-pounds per second," Bateau paraphrased.

Lisa was still confused. She and Bateau were in her laboratory at her

workplace. It just so happened that she worked with Ritsuko and that her

laboratory occupied an entire floor of a giant building.

"It's basically the unit used to determine how powerful a car is," Bateau

said, "From what I've learned ever since I got here, the average horsepower of a

2-liter naturally aspirated combustion engine is probably around 140,"

"Is that considered a lot?" she asked.

Bateau shook his head, "Not really. From what I've noticed, with the cars I

see driven around here, they probably average around 1200 horsepower. Of course,

that's because it's completely different technology,"

"Let's try and design an old relic engine that'll match today's engine's

output," Lisa said, "All we need to do is figure out how to make the engine put

out ten times it's normal expected power,"

Bateau scratched his head, "Um, I don't want to sound like a downer, but

that's going to be really hard,"

"But it's doable, right?" she asked.

Bateau nodded, "Yeah,"

"Then let's give it a try," Lisa grinned.

At that moment, the sound of a buzzer could be heard coming from the intercom

right by her desk. This surprised Lisa because the building was closed and only

she and Bateau were in there.

"I wonder who could be trying to reach me at this early in the morning," Lisa

commented.

She reached over and pressed the button on her intercom.

This allowed her to talk to whoever was standing in the closed front entrance of

the building.

"Hello?" she asked.

"It's me, Asuka," came Asuka's voice, "May I come in? I'd like to talk to ask

you about some stuff,"

"Hey, Asuka, how's everything going?" she returned, "Sure. You can come in.

Just wait outside for a few minutes. We'll come down and let you in,"

"Thanks," Asuka said.

"Hm, I wonder why she's here, especially this early," Lisa looked at her

watch, "It's barely even six in the morning,"

The two of them proceeded toward the elevator in the back of the laboratory

that would take them down to the lobby that led to the front entrance.

"How does she know that you're here?" Bateau asked. "I usually hang around

the building until around now," Lisa replied, "It's general knowledge among the

group that I'm a night owl and my sleeping schedule is really messed up,"

"I don't think it's messed up," Bateau stated.

Lisa gave Bateau a playful punch, "Of course not. You don't require sleep,"

Bateau gave a awkward laugh, "I guess you're right,"

When the two of them made to the front doors, Lisa punched in a few number on

the keypad on the door handle and then opened the door to let Asuka in.

"Morning," Lisa smiled.

"Morning, Lisa. Morning, Bateau-san," Asuka gave the two of them a courteous

smile.

"Morning, Asuka. Bateau's fine," Bateau smiled in return. Although he had only

been on this world for a short time, he felt weird being addressed so formally.

"So, what brings you here?" Lisa asked, "It's pretty early. Don't you usually

sleep in late, like until around an hour before your first class starts?"

Asuka nodded, "Yeah, but I just wanted to ask you some stuff,"

"Sure, go right ahead,"

"Can you give me a crash course on cars?" Asuka asked,

"Of all people, I figured you'd be the best person to ask,"

Lisa gave a sheepish smile.

"Cars? I know nothing about it,"

Asuka was a lucky girl.

She was lucky that Bateau liked Lisa and seemed prone to be hanging around her

more often than not. Of course, it was very amusing that neither Lisa nor Bateau

seemed aware of this.

Bateau went about explaining how a combustion engine worked as Asuka listened

intently.

"From what I read, combustion engines seems to have been the most prevalent

kinds of engines used on this world from the mid-1900's to the early-2000's,"

Bateau said, "It was then replaced with the more fuel-efficient gas-electric

hybrid around 2010. Shortly after that, it was replaced by fuel cell engines,

which is where this world's technology seem to be,"

"Wow, you know a lot," Lisa was impressed, "When'd you read up on all of

this?"

Bateau gave a slight chuckle, "Usually during break when I'm at work.. This

world seems to be very much like my own technologically. However, from what I

see, it seems like it's moving along at a slower pace,"

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked.

"Well, it seems to rely on fuel cell powered engines quite a lot," Bateau

answered, "On our world, those were only around for a few years before it was

replaced by anti-gravity propulsion. It's as if this world is on the same

technological track as my world, but moving along slower,"

"Hm, I wonder if Ranma giving me the OMS chip and my revealing Genom's

intention was the reason why this world is moving along at such a slower rate,"

Lisa wondered aloud, "Just curious, how efficient is anti-gravity on your

world?"

"Really efficient," Bateau said, "The most efficient form of propulsion yet

that I know of,"

"Really?" Lisa seemed a bit skeptic, "From what I know of it on our world, the

potentially better, but still has a long way to go,"

Bateau said, "Well, I guess after it's refined several times over, it'll be

realized that it's the best. Of course, because of technological limitations on

this world, it doesn't seem as useful at the moment, but it will be,"

"Back to the subject, the kind of engine we're expected to be working with and

designing was most prevalent before the year 2000 on this world," Bateau said.

"Can you give me more detail?" Asuka asked, "I'd like to know everything there

is about cars if possible before I'm expected to help out with Ranma,"

Bateau looked at his watch.

"Sure, I'll be happy to teach you. I have quite a bit of time before I'm

expected to leave for work,"

After she was done with her classes, Asuka wondered if she was ready to head

home yet.

She was pretty confident that she now knew a lot more about cars than before,

but she was still a bit worried that she didn't know enough. Actually, now that

she should about it, no matter how much she knew, she was pretty sure

that she didn't know just enough that Ranma would be able to tease her about it.

She walked slowly home, wondering if she should bother to stop off at the

library and stay there for a few more hours studying before finally heading on

home.

"Hi there," came a male voice.

Asuka had been so caught up in thinking about what she was going to do that

she didn't see the man approach her until she felt someone tap on her shoulder.

It turned out that she didn't even hear him and had continued on walking.

"Huh?" she turned her attention toward the man.

"Hi," the young man said.

Asuka regarded the young man for a moment. She didn't recognize him. Once

again, it was yet another random guy trying to hit on her.

"Hi, can you do me a favor?" Asuka asked.

"Um, sure, what is it?" the man asked, smiling.

"Can you wait here for a moment?" she asked.

"Okay," he said.

Asuka gave him a fake smile before walking off, disappearing around the

corner.

She continued down the street in silence before she stopped and decided it was

best she head on over to the library. As much as Bateau had explained cars to

her, she still wasn't comfortable with her current knowledge and had

opted to go learn some more, even if it would be very little more.

She turned down a street heading in the direction of the local library but

stopped dead in her tracks when she caught sight of Ranma across the street and

standing in front of a book store talking to a gorgeous blond woman.

Asuka recognized that woman. It was that model that graced the cover of

several fashion magazines. She didn't know much about her except that her name

was Melinda and she was said to be part Swedish, which explained why she

had blond hair and blue eyes.

Asuka contemplated just ignoring what she had seen but couldn't bring herself

to do so. Perhaps it was the confrontational part of her personality that made

her incapable of just ignoring them. Instead, she walked across the street and

approached Ranma from beyond as he continued to converse with that model,

Melinda.

"Yeah, the car we're working on is gonna kick ass," she heard Ranma comment,

"It's gonna be so powerful I'm gonna put a sticker on its bumper that says, 'Ha

ha, you just lost to a 2-liter combustible engine', where I'll have the

word 'combustible' in bold letters,"

"Um, that sounds very interesting," the beautiful woman tried to act

interested. It was obvious she had no real idea what Ranma was talking about.

"A combustible engine a type of engine that became obsolete many years ago,

around the turn of the century," Asuka jumped into the conversation.

Ranma turned toward Asuka, "Oh, hey, Asuka. What's up? Funny seeing you here.

Where were you headed, toward the library or something?"

"Um, no," she said, "I saw you so I figured I'd see what you were up to,"

"I was talking to Melinda," Ranma gestured toward the woman, "We met a while

ago. She's cool. She's this model chick,"

"Model chick?" the woman gave Ranma a curious look, "Is that what you consider

me?"

"Y'know what I mean," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "I don't mean no offense

or nothing,"

"Wow, a triple negatives in a single sentence," Asuka smirked.

"Ha ha," Ranma didn't seem one bit offended, "Melinda, this is Asuka. Asuka,

this is Melinda,"

"Nice to meet you," the woman named Melinda said politely.

Asuka, as pretty as she was, knew her beauty seemed insignificant when

compared to this Melinda person. Being up close to Melinda made Asuka realize

just how out of her league Asuka was compared to her.

"Um, likewise," Asuka said, wondering how Ranma and Melinda knew each other.

"You know that cello you see Shinji playing from time to time? She was the

person that lent it to him," Ranma said.

Asuka didn't seem to really care about that little fact, choosing merely to

shrug her shoulders in acknowledgment.

"Heading home?" Ranma asked Asuka, "Want me to walk you home?"

"I don't care," Asuka tried to act nonchalant. Deep down inside, she hoped

Ranma would indeed walk with her. Perhaps she didn't like the thought of Ranma

hanging around some person other than her. Jeez, what the heck was she

thinking? Ranma annoyed the heck out of her so why would she rather him with

her than with anyone else?

"Fine, I'll walk you," Ranma said. He then turned toward Melinda, "Well, this

is where we part. See y'round,"

"Um, okay," Melinda managed to say, surprised how Ranma seemed to have so

easily dismissed her, "The offer still stands. Perhaps another day,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "No problem,"

Ranma and Asuka began walking off.

"What offer?" Asuka had to ask.

"Huh?"

"She said something about an offer standing," Asuka said, "What was she

talking about?"

"Oh, she said that if I ever feel the need to engage in a one-night stand,

she'd be more than happy to oblige," Ranma said.

"What?" Asuka's eyes widened, her voice loud.

"I was only joking," Ranma bopped Asuka on the top of her head, "Jeez. I can't

believe you actually believed that. Anyway, she told that the fashion company

she works for is hosting this annual fashion show next week and invited me

to attend. She'll be one of the runway models wearing some new outfits her

company designs,"

"So what do you say?" she asked, "Do you plan on going?"

Ranma shrugged, "Doubtful. I don't like the thought of watching chicks just

strut around wearing outfits I understand nothing about nor care to know about,"

Asuka felt an inward sense of relief when she found out he wasn't going to go,

and she didn't really know why since Ranma was his own person.

"Besides, we're gonna be working on the project together," Ranma smiled, "It

doesn't seem right to just leave in the middle of the project to attend some

fashion show,"

Asuka smiled happily, "I guess you have a point,"

new stuff 7/11

Asuka came back home from school and was pleasantly surprised to see Luna

outside the house sweeping the sidewalk. This was quite a strange sight, what

with the fact that Luna was arguably the most powerful human in existence and

she doing a mundane task such as weeping the sidewalk. It was even more funny

seeing her actually sweeping it with a broom instead of using magic to make the

broom do the work for her while she did something else.

"Hey, Asuka," Luna greeted amiably.

"Hey, Luna, it's nice to see you again," Asuka said politely, "How was your

trip back home?"

Luna smiled warmly, "It's good to be back. The trip was fine. We showed up

there seemingly at the nick of time,"

"Oh, how so?" Asuka was curious.

"We arrive back our world near Anlinson Castle," Luna stated, "It's one of

many castles that can be found on my world. Well, it's this very powerful and

heavily fortified castle, and as powerful as a castle as it was, it was having

trouble fighting off a dragon. We show up, do the dirty work of getting rid of

the dragon, and then go about our business,"

"Why was the dragon attacking the castle?" Asuka asked, wondering how awesome

it would be to actually see a dragon. But then again, perhaps seeing an

Evangelion was probably just as awesome as seeing a dragon.

Luna laughed, "You really wouldn't believe it if I told you,"

"Try me," Asuka said, expecting the unexpected.

"Seems like she, the gray dragon, is one of the last dragons still alive on

that world," Luna said, "After the deal with Ranma going crazy not too long ago,

all the worlds were effected. On my world, all the dragons went nuts and started

attacking everything and killing each other. We saw that first hand when Shinji

and I went there to get Emiko back after she went back to her world. Since the

dragon's basically the most powerful of all the dragons, it's no wonder she

would be one of the last remaining,"

"I still don't understand why it, I mean she, was attacking the castle," Asuka

was confused.

Luna gave a shy smile, "It turns out that there were rumors floating around

the princess that resides in that castle, a girl named Rene, knows where Ranma

was,"

"Huh? What does Ranma hafta do with this?" Asuka wondered, "How come

everything comes back to Ranma?"

Luna chuckled, "I really don't know. It's something about how the dragon wants

to meet Ranma and went to the castle looking to find his whereabouts. The

dragon's human name is Miyuki. It seems like Ranma had come in contact with her

one day. You need to talk to Lina about the details about that because I wasn't

there when it happened. All I know was that it had something to do with the

dragon attacking some hot spring,"

"Miyuki? What kinda name is that for a dragon?" Asuka asked.

"It's her human name," Luna said, "A dragon's real name is unpronounceable in

the human language. However, their human name is much easier to remember and

usually very simple,"

"Why would this dragon have a human name?" she asked.

Luna answered, "Because she can assume a human form. There are many kinds of

dragon races that can assume human form, like gold and gray dragons. Her race

happens to be one of them,"

"I wonder why this Miyuki dragon is looking for Ranma?" Asuka scratched her

head

"Maybe because, as the one last of her kind, she wants to mate with Ranma

since it's common knowledge that dragons on my world need to procreate with a

human so their offspring will be able to assume a human form at will, and she

having met Ranma, believes Ranma's a good candidate to be the father of her

child," Luna laughed.

Asuka gave a sheepish laugh, "Right,"

"Wouldn't it be funny it that were true?" Ranma grinned as he entered the

room.

Both girls quickly turned to face him, surprised at the thought that he

could've overheard their conversation.

"How's Miyuki doing anyway?" Ranma asked, leaning against the doorjamb, "I

remember her. We only met for a short while. She was in dragon form then, and it

kinda makes me wonder how she looks in her human form,"

"Um, from what I saw, she seems fine," Luna said, wondering exactly what she

should be saying.

"Who is this Miyuki person?" Asuka asked, as if jealous from hearing that

female name.

Ranma shrugged, "She's this dragon I met a while ago. She was attacking this

hot spring business when I bumped into her. It turns out that she was attacking

that place because the owner who put up that business put it up over her own

personal hot spring,"

Luna and Asuka were at a loss of words.

"Only you find them, huh?" Luna chuckled, "Only you end up in weird situations

and meeting the most unusual people,"

Ranma grinned, "I guess so,"

Asuka eavesdropped on a nearby conversation among several girls as she and

everyone else in the classroom waited for their professor to arrive.

"Hey, have you checked out 'Random Encounter'?" she heard. It made her wonder

what they were talking about. Was it some kind of new television show? A new

video game?

"Whatcha guys talking about?" Asuka asked, her curiosity getting the better of

her. Besides, they were obligated to answer her since she answered so many of

their questions the other day concerning Ranma and his marital status and her

relationship with him.

"'Random Encounter'," a girl named Taki replied, "It's a webpage that recently

came about on the Net. It's hugely popular,"

"What kinda webpage is it?" she asked, a bit surprised she didn't know

anything about it. She was usually in the know about quite a bit of stuff, stuff

like new occurrences on the Net to current events to overall general knowledge.

"It came about only a few days but it's receiving traffic like you wouldn't

believe," Taki replied, "It's now the great big craze of the Net world,"

"What's so special about it?" Asuka asked.

"Well, like the name of the page indicates, it focuses on random encounters,"

Taki stated, "It's a page about a guy walking up to random girls and just

talking to them,"

"What's so interesting about that?" Asuka didn't seem all that impressed.

Taki said, "Every single encounter this guy has come across resulted in the

girl basically falling for him on the spot or coming damn close to it. No one

knows if this guy and his encounters are legit or not, but the conversations the

guy talks about seems too random for it to be rehearsed. The guy seems to be

wearing some kind of hidden camera on him as he talks to these girls. It's

hugely popular among the guys and girls because of two things. The guys flood to

his page to actually take pointers on his encounters. The girls flood his page

simply out of curiosity of exactly who this guy is,"

"What, you don't see the guy doing all the talking?" Asuka asked.

The girl shook her head, "No. It's a hidden camera on him. What sucks is that

the guy, when he says his name, it's bleeped out. The same goes for the girl. I

guess it's simply for privacy. I'm sure lots and lots of people know about this

guy. If his name is revealed, then all the encounters from here on would be

rather awkward since the girl will most likely recognize his name and realize

she's being filmed via hidden camera,"

"Lettme get this straight," Asuka said, "There's a page on the Net about a guy

walking up to random girls, striking up a conversation with them and getting

them to basically swoon over him? Who the hell is this guy? He sounds like some

kind of scumbag preying on girls like that,"

Taki shook her head, "No. It's none of that. It's the girls that end up

divulging more information about themselves than need be. For instance, there's

one encounter where he walked up to a girl to ask for what time it was and the

girl beginning. Heck, after a few minutes, you notice that the guy just wants to

leave. It's downright sick how easy this guy can basically get the girl's phone

number,"

"Does he?" Asuka was a bit suspicious.

"No," she said, "So far, that page has only five videos for downloading. On

all five videos, the girls freely gave their phone numbers without him asking

for it. Of course, the numbers were bleeped out,"

Asuka scratched her head, "Man, that sounds a bit like someone I know,"

"Really? Who?" several girls asked in unison.

"Ranma,"

Asuka walked home from school late that night. She had stayed on campus for

longer than usual, studying with a study group for an upcoming test for one of

her classes.

She couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that she was walking home alone.

Sure, she should also be worried, what with the fact that it was pretty dark out

and she was by herself, but she could take care of herself if need be. Ranma had

trained her really well.

What made her feel a bit disappointed was that she had somehow gotten used to

Ranma escorting her home whenever it was late. Sure, she was usually annoyed at

Ranma for doing so since it basically indicated that Ranma didn't believe she

could take care of herself in case something bad happened.

When she entered the house, she was surprised to see that Ranma was standing

outside the house talking to Lisa.

"How come Lisa's here?" Asuka wondered aloud. Not that she had anything

against Lisa, far from it, it was just that the only time she ever saw Lisa was

during Friday dinner. It was only the middle of the week.

"So, do you think you can create something like this?" Asuka heard Lisa ask

Ranma as she approached the two of them. When she reached them, she noticed Lisa

was holding a small piece of paper to looked to be a blueprint of something.

Ranma scratched his head, "I dunno. I only worked with welding and fabrication

for only a short time when I was working on that station wagon in the garage. I

really dunno if I'm capable of doing something like that,"

"What's going on?" Asuka asked.

"Ah, welcome back," Ranma smiled warmly at her, "How was school?"

"It's fine," Asuka dismissed. Deep down insides, she liked the fact that he

asked her about school every time she got home. Sure, it was most likely a

involuntary gesture on his part, him not really caring much about how school was

for her, but a nice gesture nonetheless.

"We were discussing building an engine," Lisa gestured toward the piece of

paper in front of her. She handed it toward Asuka to take.

Asuka looked at the paper and had no real idea what she was looking at first.

It took a moment before she realized she was looking at a computer drawn diagram

of an internal combustion engine.

"This is an engine," Asuka stated.

"Very good," Ranma smiled, patting Asuka on the head like a little girl.

Asuka knocked Ranma's hand away in annoyance but said nothing about it.

"It's a 2.0-liter fuel injected combustion engine," Lisa said, "Bateau and I

worked on designing it last night and this was what we came up with. If Ranma

can somehow figure a way to build the engine, it could put out close to a five

hundred horsepower,"

"Five hundred horsepower? That's not that much," Ranma stated, scratching his

head, "Priss said that engine I put in the station wagon cranks around four

times as much horsepower,"

Lisa smirked, "Of course that engine puts out more power. It's got

significantly more displacement. This is a 2.0-liter engine. Most engines of

that caliber puts out only around three hundred horsepower at most, including

modifications. This engine can put out that much before modifications,"

"Oh, I guess that's good," Ranma said.

"Bateau said that this engine is designed for modifications," Lisa said, "He

said that after you put on all the modifications and such, it can generate

probably double the horsepower. That's a lot of horsepower, Ranma,"

"I'll take your word for it," Ranma shrugged, "What kinda modifications?"

"I don't know much about them," Lisa said, "Bateau knows more about this

stuff. He says that we can put modern day modifications on this engine. He said

you can put stuff like a hyper charger and turbine blowers and all bunch of

other stuff I haven't heard of on the engine to generate more power,"

"And in the end, you can get an engine that generates as much or more power

than the engine in the station wagon in the garage right now?" Ranma seemed

skeptic.

Lisa sighed, "Ranma, you need to understand that this is a 2.0-liter

combustion engine. These engines have been rendered obsolete decades ago. If you

think about it, I've managed to design an engine that could probably have jump-

started the automotive world decades if this engine came out then,"

Ranma chuckled, "I'm glad to see you're confident about this engine,"

"It's the best kind of engine that can possibly be produced given this world's

metal technology," Lisa said, "I'm pretty confident that there is no way any

more power could be squeezed out of an engine this small,"

"What do you mean based on this world's metal technology?" Asuka was confused.

"For the contest, a 2.0-liter combustion engine is to be used," Lisa stated,

"That's a huge restriction since that kind of technology is considered obsolete

nowadays. Combustion engines existed decades ago and had cylinders that usually

utilized gasoline for creating the combustion within those cylinders. Of course,

more powerful forms of combustion can be created, through the use of stuff like

rocket fuel or pure alcohol. The problem is that the best form of 'fuel' that

can be used for creating combustion within the cylinders, super-octanitrocubane,

is so powerful that the cylinders wouldn't be able to contain it. The metal the

engine is made of would basically incinerate under the explosiveness of that

kind of 'fuel',"

Ranma perked an eyebrow, "Let's just say, hypothetically speaking, that the

metal can contain that kind of 'fuel' for combustion. How much power can such an

engine being fueled with this super-octanitro-thingie make?"

"Do you have any idea what I'm talking about?" Lisa smirked, "super-

octanitrocubane is one of the key elements that make up an N2-mine. N2 stands

for Non-Nuclear. This stuff is as close as you can get to a nuclear explosion

without it actually being nuclear,"

"Ooh," Ranma said, very interested, "N2-mines make really big explosions. I

like those,"

Lisa shrugged, "Well, not that it really matters, but I'd have to say

somewhere along the lines of, and I'm being conservative here, over fifty-

thousand horsepower,"

"That sounds like a lot of horsepower," Ranma grinned, "That's definitely more

than what my car can produce,"

"Quite," Lisa said, "Of course, it's all moot since such an explosion can't be

contained. It'd be great if it could, but since it can't, we need to look to

using other forms of 'fuel',"

"Because the metal that makes up the engine would give out under the power of

the explosion?" Ranma asked.

Lisa nodded.

"How about if we make it out of a metal that can contain such an explosion?"

he asked, very serious.

Lisa chuckled, "Well, then we will have ourselves a really powerful engine,"

"Cool," Ranma grinned.

Lisa and Asuka looked at one another.

"What, are you going to ask Urd to create such an engine?" Lisa had to ask,

"C'mon, as great as it may be, don't you think asking 'God' to create you an

engine that defies this world's technology seems a bit like, I don't know,

cheating?"

Ranma shook his head, still grinning, "What makes you think I'm gonna ask Urd

for help? Never really needed her help ever before, so why should I start now?"

"Don't tell me you're going to go to some other world or such, are you?"

Lisa's eyes widened, "Urd's seriously pissed off at you for all the trouble

you've caused on all those world's you've visited. Even though she's God, it

still takes her time to fix up whatever problems you cause,"

Ranma shrugged, "So what? I'll help her pass the time,"

"Just what do you plan on doing?" Asuka was scared to ask.

Ranma took a hold of the blueprint, "So, lettme get this straight. If I make

this engine out of a strong enough metal to contain combustion from an N2-mine,

we will have ourselves a super powerful engine?"

"Well, yeah," Lisa said, "But I still don't understand what you're getting at.

Exactly how do you intend to do something like this?"

"I'm gonna go to a world where such a metal exists," Ranma said matter-of-

factly, "When I was God, I became aware of this world and its going-ons. It

contains the kind of metal capable of basically containing an explosion like

that of an N2-mine, or at least a miniature version of such a mine,"

"What kind of metal is that?" Asuka asked.

"Adamantium,"

Asuka leaned against the doorjamb to Ranma's bedroom. She didn't really know

what to say as she watched him pack a few pairs of clothes and in a small

backpack.

"Where is this place?" she had to ask.

"I dunno exactly where it is," Ranma said, his back toward her as he continued

to pack, "But I just do. It's kinda like riding a bike. You just know how to but

can't really describe exactly how to do so to someone. It's very similar,"

"Um, how long do you intend to be gone?" Asuka asked.

"Just for a few days," Ranma said, "I'm just gonna go there, do my business

and get my hands on that adamantium stuff and then come back here,"

"What kind of world is this?" she asked curiously, thinking of a way to say

what she had been meaning to say.

Ranma shrugged, "Weird world. Don't know much about it, but from what I do

know, there are these people with insanely strong powers called mutants. That's

about the extent of it,"

"As powerful as you?" Asuka asked.

Ranma laughed loudly, making Asuka wondered just how true his actions meant.

Was he serious or just joking around?

Ranma never said just how powerful he was, but there was speculation among the

group that Ranma possessed the exact same powers as Urd. This was because, if

Urd was so powerful, how come there was a level of respect, and even fear, of

Ranma that Urd seemed to always show whenever she was near him? If she had no

equal in terms of power, why did she look at him as if he were her equal?

"Why do you even bother packing clothes?" Asuka asked, "Don't you just steal

whatever clothes you need wherever you are? It's not like you're morally

challenged or anything,"

"I'm only morally challenged when it's convenient," Ranma grinned, slinging

his backpack over his shoulder.

There was a moment of awkward silence as Asuka watched Ranma finish packing.

Deep down inside, Asuka didn't want Ranma to leave. As much as she hated to

admit it, she didn't like the thought of him going somewhere far away from her.

Perhaps it was out of her phobia that he would never come back. Unlike any of

the other girls, she had more of an attachment toward Ranma because of their

trip together to Antarctica a long time ago. Because Ranma had died during that

trip, Asuka had this subconscious fear that he could die once again.

"Um," she began.

"Hm?" Ranma turned toward her.

Asuka's words failed her. Ranma continued on with his packing, finished before

long.

She was forced to step aside as Ranma walked past her to head downstairs.

"Ranma," Asuka called out to him.

"Yes?" he turned toward her, looking up the stairs toward her.

"Can I come with you?"

Ranma and Asuka stood by the koi pond in the backyard.

"I dunno, are you sure you wanna come?" Ranma scratched his head, having his

doubts, "It's not like I'm gonna be away for long. All I'm gonna do is go there,

get my hands on some of that adamantium and come back. Think of it as me going

to the hardware store to get some sheetrock,"

"What, you don't want me coming along?" Asuka asked.

He shrugged, "Dunno. Perhaps. You'd probably get in the way,"

"Oh," Asuka felt disappointed. Now that she thought of it, with someone like

Ranma, anyone shy of being on the same power level of Luna would be considered a

hindrance.

Ranma noticed the disappointed look on Asuka's face and it kind of tore away

at him. Perhaps he shouldn't had said that.

"If you wanna come, then I don't mind," Ranma stated, "But then again, you

said you have an upcoming test. I don't really have an idea of when I'll be back

and I don't wanna be the cause of you missing a test if, for some stupid reason,

we end up staying there longer than expected,"

Asuka tried to think of an argument but came up with nothing.

Ranma said, "But then again, there's absolutely no reason for us to hafta stay

there longer than a day or two. It's not like we have to stay there for anything

anyway. It's not like we will hafta hang around waiting for Second Impact or

anything. All we'd be doing is show up, pick up some of that adamantium metal,

and then come back,"

"That sounds like an easy job," Asuka said, sounding hopeful.

"Of course, I have no idea where one can get that stuff," Ranma chuckled, "For

all we know, we can pick some of that stuff up at the grocery store. But then

again, for all we know, I might hafta do some odd tasks to get our hands on it,"

He thought about it for a moment before shrugged.

"I'm sure whatever we hafta do, it won't be all that hard," Ranma chuckled,

"Frankly, I'm curious about how powerful these mutants on that world are. Maybe

if they're powerful enough, I'll spar against them,"

"Why not spar against Ryoga or something?" Asuka asked, "I know how you're

always looking to spar against someone, so what's wrong with sparring against

Ryoga?"

Ranma laughed, "Ryoga? He would've been a good sparring partner a few years

ago, before I became God. But now's a different story. I heard he has a friend

that's really strong and would give me a good run for my money,"

"That guy with the black spiky hair that's said to defy gravity?" Asuka asked,

remembering Ryoga saying something about that, "That guy that hangs out with

some guy with no nose and a green guy or something or another?"

"Yeah," Ranma shrugged, not all that interested, "But then again, if I wanna

meet people like that, I'll just go visit New York across the sea. I heard that

places got people that would scare the crap outta me, and I've seen some really

scary stuff,"

"Well, maybe you'll find a good sparring partner," Asuka said, "Frankly, I'm

actually kind of curious to see you spar,"

"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, "I spar against Shinji all the

time,"

Asuka smirked, "Has he ever touched you once during a sparring session?"

Ranma shook his head.

"Well, then it's not really a sparring session for you, huh?"

"I guess you're right," Ranma agreed, "Man, it'd be cool to fight someone

really strong. I hope that world's got some wickedly strong people,"

"I thought you were only interested in just getting this ada-something metal,"

Asuka said.

"That too," Ranma grinned, "But that doesn't mean I can't take a bit of time

off to see how well the inhabitants of that world fairs in a sparring match

every here and there,"

"If you say so," Asuka said.

"C'mon, let's go,"

"Um, okay," Asuka said.

Asuka couldn't help but feel a great sense of excitement.

On a different world very similar yet very different from Ranma's own world, a

man with shoulder-length black hair of an undetermined age happened to be

looking out the window of his bedroom at around three in the morning.

The man had been staying at a place which resembled that of a school called

'The Xavier Institute for the Gifted'. This place was a combination of a school

as well as living quarters.

Although the man looked rather young, very few people knew that he was well

over a hundred years old. He looked young because he had this mutant ability

that seemed to keep him looking young.

The man looking out the window was named Logan. To many, he was called

Wolverine. He was one of the many mutants, a species referred to as homo

superior, that inhabited this world.

What is a mutant? Mutant were basically what the human species would

eventually become after millions of years of evolution. The only problem was

that for some unknown reason, this world's evolutionary process was out of synch

which resulted in many humans beings being born with mutant powers. These were

all powers their species were not supposed to possess until millions of years

down the evolutionary path.

Mutants were categorized into classes based on their powers. The mutants with

extremely weak mutant powers were considered Alpha mutants, while extremely

powerful mutants were considered Omega mutants.

Logan was considered an Alpha mutant, possessing super-fast healing, super-

keen senses, and the ability to bring forth a set of claws from his fists. Oddly

enough, Logan was also one of the greatest mutants on that world, often

underestimated since he was rather small in stature, but unmatched in fighting

ferocity. The alias of Wolverine was a very fitting name for someone like Logan.

The fact that he possessed an adamantium-bonded skeletal system couple with

super-fast healing meant he was virtually impossible to kill. What is

adamantium? Adamantium is considered the strongest man-made metal in existence

and virtually indestructible. Because of these factors, Logan was one of the few

Alpha mutants that go toe-to-toe with supremely powerful Omega mutants.

Logan, a man with a very mysterious past and have seen things that should

never be seen, was a man that could rarely be caught off-guard or surprised.

Tonight, Ranma's and Asuka's arrival on the grassy field surrounding the

building, had caught Logan by surprise.

A man of experience, Logan was quick to pull his thoughts together and respond

to the unexpected occurrence.

He headed for the door to go outside to meet these new arrivals.

Outside, Asuka was partially disoriented.

"You okay?" Ranma asked.

Asuka rubbed at her eyes. Her eyes hurt because she had opened her eyes before

the portal disappeared, which had blinded her temporarily.

"I'm okay," she said, "I just need a minute for my eyes to get adjusted,"

"Told ya to keep your eyes closed," Ranma chuckled.

Ranma took a moment to look around and take in his surroundings. He had no

idea where he was. But then again, he didn't really care. He could find himself

in the middle of Antarctica and would be all right after he was able to figure

out what to do next.

Look straight ahead, he noticed a large mansion-like building that reminded

him of school when he used to attend high school many many years ago. He

realized he and Asuka were standing in the middle of what was most likely the

building's front lawn.

"Great, if whoever that lives in that mansion has a thing against trespassers,

it looks like we're gonna have trouble," Ranma commented, turning toward Asuka,

"We should get off the lawn,"

He turned away from Asuka and toward the building where he caught sight of a

man crossing the lawn heading in their direction. As the man got close enough,

Ranma turned his full attention toward him, more curious about the man than

concerned.

"That's a rather interesting trick you did a minute ago," the man said, "Care

to tell me who you are and how you got here before I decide to hurt you or not?"

Ranma didn't really understand what the man was saying but recognizing it as

English. Although he knew some English, he didn't know enough to be able to

understand exactly what he said.

"You speak Japanese?" Ranma asked in English, figuring it couldn't hurt to

ask.

"Actually, I do," Logan responded in Ranma's native tongue, "And as I was

saying, care to tell me who you are and where you came from? You've only got a

minute before my friends get here,"

"Is that a threat?" Ranma didn't like how the man said that.

"He's Ranma and I'm Asuka," Asuka interrupted, worried about what could

possibly happen if some fight broke out.

Logan regarded Asuka for a moment, oddly reminded of Amiko, his foster

daughter. Perhaps it was the slight Japanese heritage to Asuka that reminded

Logan of her. However, that thought only lasted for a moment.

"Do you have adamantium?" Ranma asked bluntly, "We're looking for some of that

stuff,"

Logan regarded Ranma for a moment, not really knowing what to make out of the

man before him. Ranma stood taller than him, but he was not one bit intimidated.

The odd thing was the way Ranma carried himself. There was an air of

carelessness to Ranma that Logan couldn't quite understand.

Logan closed one hand into a fist as three claws shot out from the back of his

hand, extending forward for Ranma to see, glistening in the early morning

moonlight.

"Y'mean this kinda adamantium?" Logan smirked.

Ranma seemed impressed, "Whoa. How'd you do that?"

"Magic," Logan grinned.

Ranma nudged at Asuka, "See that? Magic exists on this world like our own,"

Asuka didn't seem to hear Ranma's words for she was focusing on claws that

sticking out of the man's hand. It looked razor sharp and the man looked like

the kind of guy that wouldn't hesitate to use it.

"I never got your name," Ranma said.

"I never gave ya my name," Logan said, "And you still didn't answer my other

question. Why're you get here?"

"That's rather rude," Ranma found himself a bit annoyed at the man for some

odd reason.

Ranma looked over Logan's shoulder where he saw several people emerging from

the building where the man had come from.

Little did Ranma know that the X-Men were all coming out to investigate. The

X-Men was a team of mutants that consisted of Storm, Rogue, Cyclops, Jean Grey,

Beast, and Nightcrawler. Accompanying them was their mentor Charles Xavier.

Ranma and Asuka found themselves staring at back and forth between

Nightcrawler and Beast. It was probably because neither of them looks human that

made them stare, that and the fact that they were blue.

"Wow, blue people," Ranma commented aloud, referring to both Nightcrawler and

Beast, "And I thought I've seen it all. I guess I was wrong,"

A bald man that looked to be somewhere in his fifties, if not later, in a

wheelchair, possessing eyes that seemed wiser beyond his years, wheeled himself

forward from the group and stopped right next to Logan.

"I'm Charles Xavier," the man began, "Welcome to-"

"No use Chuck," Logan said, "They don't understand English. They only speak

Japanese,"

"I understand some English," Asuka said.

"I'm Charles Xavier and this place is 'The Xavier School for the Gifted'," the

man said, "Might I inquire toward the reason behind your visit? Do you require

help of some sort?"

"Not really," Asuka said, "We came here looking for adamantium. Do you know

where we can find some?"

Ranma looked back and forth between Asuka and the man in the wheelchair as

they seemed to converse. He recognized the word adamantium but that was about

it.

The group behind Logan looked at each other, confused as to the odd request.

"Adamantium, we want," Ranma said in English. Although he was simply asking,

it sounded more like he was demanding based on the way it came out.

"I suggest you let your friend do the talking, bub," Logan said to Ranma in

Japanese, "You should stick with your native language. Not unless you don't care

about making a fool out of yourself,"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Logan.

Xavier turned toward Nightcrawler, "Kurt, can you please retrieve the Japanese

audio translators from the science lab?"

"Okay," Nightcrawler said.

Ranma's and Asuka's eyes widened as the guy Xavier was talking to suddenly

disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke. A second later, he reappeared, holding in

one of his three-fingered hands, two small communicators that looked similar to

one of those hands-free cellular devices.

Nightcrawler walked forward and extended the devices for Asuka to take.

"Please, take those translators," Xavier said to Asuka, "They'll translate our

words to Japanese in your earpiece while your words will automatically

translated to English for us to understand,"

Asuka paused for a moment as she looked at the odd looking hand that belonged

to Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler seem a bit sad at how Asuka hesitated. But then

again, considering he had blue skin, yellow eyes, and three fingered hands, it

was natural that people seeing him for the first time would be a bit freaked

out.

Asuka took the communicator and handed it to Ranma.

"They say to put this on," Asuka told Ranma, "It'll help break the language

barrier,"

Ranma shrugged as he took Asuka's words to heart and put the device on.

'Her friend seems to show no signs of caution,' Xavier heard the red-haired

woman named Jean Grey communicate to him telepathically.

'I know,' Xavier responded, 'That's rather unnatural,'

"Test, test?" Ranma said into the part of the device in front of his mouth.

A second later, his words, translated into English, emerged from a small

speaker located right by that mouth device.

Asuka took a moment before she put the device on.

"Now our language barrier seems to be no more," Xavier said.

"Wow, it works," Ranma said, hearing the words in his ears in Japanese.

"Now that we don't have to worry about a language barrier anymore, perhaps you

can tell us how come you're here," Xavier said.

"You the head dude here?" Ranma asked, "Um, no pun intended, what with you

being bald and all,"

Logan snickered. That was rather funny.

"If you wish to put it that way," Xavier said, unbothered by the comment,

"Your friend said you two were looking for adamantium,"

"Yeah," Ranma nodded, "We're looking for metal that can withstand explosions

of, basically, nuclear proportions. You know where we can find some of that

stuff?"

Everyone started looking at one another. Perhaps it was better to not be able

to understand what Ranma was saying than to be able to.

"We're from another world," Ranma said, expecting everyone to not believe a

single word he was saying, "I used to be God, and being God, I became aware of

this world and adamantium. I dunno much about it but I know it exists on this

world. I wanna bring that stuff back to our world to make a really powerful

engine since the metal on our world can't withstand the kinda combustions we

want,"

"Did I hear that correctly? Did you just say you used to be God?" a man with

red shades asked, "By the way, I'm Cyclops,"

Ranma regarded the man for a moment. The man had short brown hair and stood

taller than Ranma and had on a pair of red shades that seemed a bit odd to be

wearing considering it was night out. He noticed a wedding band on his ring

finger and the exact same band on the beautiful red-haired woman standing right

next to him. Through quick observation, it led him to believe that they were

perhaps married to one another.

"Cyclops? Um, okay," Ranma seemed surprised at the name, "Anyway, yeah, I used

to be God. I stopped being God awhile ago and gave the job to someone else. To

make a long story short, when I was God, I kinda became, I dunno half-ass all-

knowing, which is why I know about this world. That's what led me to come here.

Can you help us out? Otherwise, we'll go elsewhere,"

"Well, of all the people to ask for help, this is probably the best place to

be to ask for help," Cyclops stated, "However, this is one odd request,"

"Can you help or not?" Ranma seemed impatient.

"We'll try,"

Ranma wandered the hallways of the school early in the morning.

He and Asuka had been given a guestroom to sleep in for the night. While Ranma

had been conversing with the group, Asuka had involuntarily yawn which prompted

Ranma to cut their meeting short in hopes of heading out and finding a motel to

sleep before Asuka got too sleepy. Xavier had offered to let them use one of the

building's guestrooms instead, which Ranma took up.

Asuka was sleeping soundly in the guestroom and would most likely not wake up

for another few hours. Since Ranma didn't need to sleep, this gave him plenty of

time alone to just walk around and take in his surroundings.

Looking around, Ranma noticed that even though the giant building was

basically a school for young mutants, the building reminded him more of an

extravagant-looking learning center instead.

It was around eight in the morning and Ranma was forced to step off to the

side to allow large groups of children heading for classrooms. To him, the

children looked like normal children. Then again, little did Ranma know that all

the children were prohibited from using whatever powers they had when school was

in session.

Before long, Ranma found himself by the front entrance to the school, looking

out toward the large grassy field where he saw scores of children gathered

around in groups, a lone adult teaching them.

"Outside learning sessions, huh?" Ranma said to himself, "That's a good idea.

Children'll enjoy learning more. The school in my world should do that,"

Ranma noticed the beautiful red-haired woman from last night standing right by

a large rock, a group of young children forming a semi-circle in front of her,

as she gave her attentive students their lecture. From where he was, he observed

her as she turned toward the rock, as if to give an example for the children,

and extend her hand toward it.

When the rock, which looked to weigh at least a two thousand pounds, seemed to

magically levitate into the air, he had a good idea he knew what the woman's

mutant ability was.

"She must know magic," he stated.

He tugged at his shirt collar.

He never used to do that, that is, until he started wearing this heavy pin

that Shinji gave him. Shinji had mentioned that he wanted Ranma to wear the pin

and simply go about his business like usual. He had said it was for a pet

project but never really said exactly what kind of project it was in the first

place.

He didn't bother straining his brain trying to figure it out and made a mental

note to ask Shinji what the project was when he and Asuka got back home.

Ranma continued to observe her as she went about with the rest of her lecture,

making the rock levitate a few more times, even making it rotate, before putting

it gently back down in its rightful place.

Before he even realized it, time flew by and her class was over. The sound of

a bell could be heard as the kids got up from their seated positions around the

woman and headed toward the school to go to their next class for the day.

Ranma choose that opportunity to approach her.

"G'morning," Ranma said.

"Morning," Jean smiled.

"I was watching you before," he said.

"I noticed," she replied, "You were by the front entrance only around five

minutes after my class started,"

"I saw you move that rock," Ranma said, "That's really cool. Is that one of

your special abilities, moving rocks? What do people call it, magic?"

Jean gave a laugh, "Magic? Not quite. It may seem like magic I guess, but it's

actually telekinesis,"

"Tele-what?" Ranma ask.

"Telekinesis," she said, "It's basically the ability to move objects with the

mind,"

"So it's like 'Mind over matter'?" he asked, "Wow, that's a great party

trick?"

"A party trick? I guess it has some truth to it," she nodded.

"I'm Ranma by the way," he said, "We never got the chance to introduce one

another but I remember you from last night,"

"I'm Jean," she responded.

"Nice to meetcha," Ranma said, walking over to the rock, "This telekinesis

stuff, is it hard?"

Jean thought about it for a moment, "Hard? Well, it kind of depends on how

complex the task is. Moving one rock is simple. Doing something like putting a

car together from hundreds of pieces and putting all those pieces in its

rightful place is much harder,"

"What about weight, is that a factor?" he asked, very interested.

"Not entirely," she said, "Not unless the weight is extreme, like in the

hundreds of thousands of pounds,"

Ranma placed a hand on the rock and gave it a small nudge, causing it to slide

a few inches forward on the ground.

"This rock's probably really heavy to a normal person, but to someone that

knows telekinesis, it's probably really easy, huh?" he asked, pulling the rock

back forward into its rightful place.

Jean was silent for a moment, "Well, it seems like it isn't much trouble to

someone of your strength,"

Jean had wondered what some of Ranma's mutant abilities were, and it seemed

like he had just shown one of them, extreme strength. Although it was usually

wrong to assume anything, like Ranma being a mutant like herself, she had a

funny feeling he had some special powers. She could had easily found out what

they were by establishing a telepathic link with him and finding out for

herself, but she restrained herself from doing so because it would basically be

an invasion of privacy if it was without his consent.

"Someone of my strength?" Ranma asked, "I think it's different with me. I

can't even tell if stuff's heavy anymore. My powers are really messed up,"

"Messed up? What makes you say that?"

"Let's just say it's messed up and leave it at that," Ranma said.

"Okay," Jean said, her interest more piqued than before.

"You're a teacher in this school?" he asked. It was surprising just how easily

Ranma could keep a conversation going.

Jean nodded, "Yes. I haven't been teaching as long as some of the others at

the school, but I've been teaching for a while nonetheless,"

"Aren't you worried that teaching these kids might be a bad thing?" Ranma

asked bluntly, "For all we know, there's a chance they could use it for evil,"

"If we teach them the right way, there's more likely a chance they would use

it for good," Jean countered. Many people had asked her such a question and that

was her automatic response.

Ranma nodded, "Definitely got a point there. I know whatcha mean. I've been

down that path,"

"You have?" Jean asked.

Ranma said, "I used to teach martial arts back on my own world. There was

always a chance that my students would use what I taught 'em to bully others. Of

course, to prevent that, more time is spent teaching them to do the right thing

than actually teaching them the techniques,"

"That's a very good example," Jean had to admit.

Ranma gestured toward the wedding band on the ring finger on Jean's left hand.

"So, you're married," he said.

"Yes, I am," she said. She liked that fact. It helped keep the males at bay.

She knew she was a very beautiful woman, and frankly, she grew tired of men

hitting on her long ago. Now that she was married, it made refusing a guy's

attempts to have a date with her easier.

"Can I see it?" he asked.

Jean was a bit surprised at the question. However, she obliged and took off

her wedding band and handed it to Ranma.

"Are you seeing anyone?" she asked, noticing no wedding band on Ranma's hand.

She flushed slightly when it she realized it sounded like she was hitting on

Ranma.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Don't think I'll be getting married anytime soon.

Girls drive me nuts sometimes,"

Jean was taken aback at the comment.

"I don't like the thought of becoming whipped," Ranma stated, glancing at the

band.

"W-whipped?" Jean stammered, truly surprised at the comment.

"If I don't wanna do something, then I don't wanna do something," he stated,

"I don't like the thought of having to bullshit just to make the girl happy,"

Jean was silent.

"For instance, chick flicks," Ranma said, "They suck. I don't wanna see them.

If I was whipped, I'd probably silently tolerate such crap simply because that's

what the girl wanted,"

"Sounds like to me you've never been in love," Jean felt sorry for Ranma,

"When you're in love, all you ever think is the person you love. If they're

happy, then you're happy,"

"If we were in love," Ranma said, "Then wouldn't it make you happy that I'm

happy?"

"Um, hypothetically speaking, if we were in love, then yes, it'd make me happy

if you were happy," Jean said, wondering when the heck the conversation had

turned to them being in love with on another.

"Well, if it makes you happy that I'm happy, then I think I should be able to

see cool kung-fu movies," Ranma said, "Afterall, even though, say, you hate

watching such movies, you know it makes me happy to see such movies. Therefore,

since I'm happy, you'll be happy,"

Jean was stunned to silence at Ranma's logic.

"The way I think of it, we're all happy either way, so why shouldn't I get to

see kung-fu movies?" he said.

Jean was still speechless.

"Did I hear someone mention kung-fu movies?" came a voice.

Ranma and Jean turned their attention toward the woman approaching.

Walking toward the two of them was a beautiful woman with long purple hair

that came down to her waist. She was wearing some designer pants and a blouse

that made her look very sophisticated. Ranma immediately noticed how beautiful

she was. Shortly after, he noticed a red mark that seemed to trail down the side

of her forehead and over her left eye.

"Betsy, you're back," Jean seemed genuinely glad to see her friend.

"Hello," Ranma smiled.

The woman named Betsy narrowed her eyes at Ranma when she noticed Ranma paying

much more attention toward her cleavage than need be.

"I'm Ranma," Ranma said, "Nice to meetcha,"

"This is Betsy," Jean said, "Also known as Psylocke,"

"Psylocke?" Ranma asked, smirking, "Any relation to Psyclops? Get it?"

Both females cast Ranma an odd look, like Ranma had grown a second head.

Ranma said sarcastically, "Wow, I'm glad you girls have a sense of humor. God

forbid you didn't. Otherwise, this'll most likely be awkward,"

Ranma sarcasm did manage to get both of them to crack a small smile.

"Did you just get in?" Jean asked her friend, "How was your visit to China?"

"Ooh, China? I like that place," Ranma said.

"We've never met, are you a new team member?" Psylocke asked curious.

"Um, yeah," Ranma joked, "They call me, um, Snafu,"

"Snafu?" Psylocke asked.

"Yeah, because of my record when I visit worlds," Ranma grinned, "It's an

acronym for 'Situation Normal All Fucked Up',"

Jean couldn't help but laugh at Ranma's quick wit. Sure, it was a rather crude

joke, but a funny one nonetheless.

"I heard something about kung-fu movies," Psylocke commented.

"Oh, I was just talking to Jean about how I like kung-fu movies and would much

rather see them than chick flicks," Ranma stated.

"Interesting," Psylocke regarded Ranma for a moment, "I like kung-fu movies

too,"

Ranma smile, "I teach martial arts. I guess it's only natural that I like

those kind of movies,"

"Martial arts, huh?," Psylocke smiled warmly, "I do martial arts. Are you any

good? Maybe we should head to the danger room. I haven't sparred against a

genuine martial artist in a while,"

Ranma pointed to himself, "Spar? With me?"

"Why not?" she asked.

"But you're a girl,"

Asuka stretched in her bed after a good night's sleep.

Almost instantly, she snapped wide awake as the sudden thought of her being

late for school entered her mind.

It wasn't until she sat upright and looked around while in her bed did she

come to realize where she was. She was on a different world. She was in the

guestroom Xavier had given to her and Ranma to stay for the night.

"Ranma?" she looked around.

When she noticed that Ranma wasn't around or in the room, a sudden sense of

panic started coming over her. Where was he? She was in an unknown world and was

alone at the moment.

She looked over toward a digital clock that was on the small table to the side

of the bed and noticed it was almost noon.

"Oh man, I can't believe I slept that long," she said, getting up and out of

her bed. She looked toward the door and wondered what she should do.

As if on cue, there was a knock on her door.

"Ranma?" she called out.

"Um, not quite," came an unrecognized voice.

"Um, who is it?" she asked.

"Kurt," came the answer.

"Um, come in," she said, wondering who this Kurt person was.

The door opened and in entered the blue, three fingered person Asuka

remembered seeing last night. She immediately tensed up at the sight, unfamiliar

to seeing people that looked like him.

"Don't worry, most people get nervous when they see me," he said, "I'm kinda

used to it. People tend to react that way to me whenever they see me,"

"Um, sorry, it's just that I'm not used to, um," she began.

"Seeing someone that looks like me?" he finished for her.

Asuka nodded, a bit embarrassed.

"I'm Nightcrawler," he stated in a soft voice, "But my real name's Kurt,"

"I'm Asuka," Asuka said, relaxing slightly.

"I came here to let you know that if you're looking for your friend, Ranma,

he's in the Danger Room," Nightcrawler said.

"Danger Room?" she asked.

"Ranma and several team members are there sparring," he answered, "It's a

holographic room where we all spar whenever we feel like it or have free time.

I'm here to take you there to him,"

"Um, okay,"

The Danger Room was a large room located underground of the school where all

of the X-Men, the elite team of mutants that operated at the Xavier institute,

had fought against one another in during most of their free time.

The room consisted of holographic matrix which gave the combatants the

illusion that they were fighting in a large open area void of possible innocent

bystanders while, in reality, it was nothing more than a very specialized room.

The woman named Psylocke, extremely skilled in the ways of martial arts, found

herself seriously outskilled. Never had she seen someone as skilled as Ranma. If

it weren't for the fact that Ranma's reflexes where insanely fast, it actually

seemed to Ranma was telepathic and able to read her mind before she even

executed her attacks.

The sparring had gone on for only around twenty minutes, and Psylocke found

herself hoping to actually touch Ranma, let alone hit him.

Ranma was obviously going extremely easy on her. He had made no attempts to

attack her even though she attacked him viciously. Heck, even though he was

half-distracted by the fact that the beautiful Psylocke was wearing what looked

like a skin-tight purple leotard. Then again, it was expected, seeing someone as

beautiful as Psylocke wearing such a tight outfit could easily make any male

distracted to the point of staring.

Several team members with in the adjoining room, watching the two combatants

spar against one another. Actually, more along the lines of watching Psylocke

trying to hit Ranma.

In that room watching at the moment was Logan, Jean Grey, Beast, and Cyclops.

All of them very curious about this newcomer named Ranma.

"He fights like a telepath," the large almost cat-like Beast commented,

looking at a computer screen. The computer in that room, the War Room, gathered

information of the fighting between to combatants in the Danger Room. The

numbers and statistics of Ranma's fighting potential were downright scary.

"Hey, Logan, you might want to look at these stats," Beast commented, "This

guy not only dodges faster than anything our computers have ever recorded, but

it indicates that the most minimal expenditure of energy is spent dodging. He

dodges quickly and efficiently as well,"

Logan didn't seem all that interested in hearing what his friend Beast had to

say. However, he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement at seeing Ranma

dodge. Ranma dodged very much like that telepathic martial artist he fought on a

few occasions. It made Logan wonder how well Ranma would do if he allowed

himself to go into one of his berserk rages.

Inside the other room, Ranma barely moved as he continued to dodge all of

Psylocke's attacks. He was caught by surprised when Psylocke, frustrated at her

inability to hit him, resorted to using her telepathic powers to generate a

psychic knife from one of her hands for extra reach, slashing at him.

"Can we please stop?" Ranma asked, feeling rather embarrassed that he was

basically making a fool out of Psylocke. It even pained him when he noticed the

doubtful look within her eyes about her own abilities as a fighter. Psylocke

wasn't a bad fighter, far from it. Instead, it was because Ranma was that much

better a fighter.

Ranma wondered how much of a shock it would be if Psylocke managed to land a

lucky hit on him, which was basically impossible if he simply paid attention,

only to find out that he possessed an AT Field.

In the other room, Jean had a very worried look on her face.

"Something the matter?" Cyclops noticed.

"My telepathy doesn't seem to have any effect on him," Jean stated.

"What?" everyone in the room turned toward her. This was an extreme shock

because Jean was one of the most powerful telepaths alive.

"Just for the fun of it, I tried to create a telepathic chain that would

temporarily bind him and prevent him from moving, just enough for Psylocke to be

able to land one blow on him," Jean said, "But the attempt had zero effect on

him. He just broke through those chains like it wasn't even there. Just to make

sure it wasn't me, I tried doing so several times. It doesn't work. I don't even

think he is even aware of it, let alone breaking them,"

Suddenly, a loud shriek could be heard from the Danger Room, causing the group

to turn their attention onto the two combatants. What they saw was Ranma with

one of his hands on Psylocke's breasts.

A second later, before she was able to lift a hand to slap Ranma for groping

her, Psylocke slumped forward into Ranma's arms unconscious.

"What the heck just happened?" Beast was the first to ask.

They watched as Ranma gently picked Psylocke up and carried her toward the

door.

Beast turned off the holographic matrix, plunging the room into a dull light,

revealing the door that was the exit to the room. The team headed out of their

room to meet Ranma at the door as he exited the Danger Room.

When Ranma emerged from the room, carrying Psylocke, Ranma answered before

anyone could ask the question.

"She didn't want to stop sparring so I pushed her sleep pressure point,"

"Hee hee hee, if I wanted to, I could do this and that with her, and she'd

sleep right through it," Ranma chuckled.

"Ranma!" Asuka shouted toward him.

Ranma held his hands up defensively, "I'm just joking around. Jeez,"

Asuka and Nightcrawler and Ranma and the group were in the Med-lab where

Psylocke looked like she was sleeping soundly on one of the medical beds. Beast

was listening to her heart with a stethoscope. Although she looked perfectly

fine, and Ranma said she was sleeping, Beast wanted to make sure Psylocke was

all right. The shriek had been Psylocke's immediate response when she looked

down and saw one of Ranma's hands on one of her breasts.

"Pressure points, huh? Interesting," Beast turned toward Ranma, "From the

looks of it, it seems extremely effective,"

Ranma grinned, "You should see how fun it is applying it,"

Asuka glared at Ranma.

"Ooh, Asuka's glaring at me," Ranma acted all worried, "I better sleep with

one eye open tonight,"

"Even though we barely know each other," Jean had to get things off her chest,

"I have to say the way to treat people is very rude,"

Ranma said loudly, "Me? How? I wasn't the one that wanted to spar. Betsy or

Psylocke or whatever you call her dragged me down here. I just put her to sleep,

the simplest and easiest way to end a fight peacefully. Okay, fine, maybe my

making the comment about it not being fair sparring against Psylocke because

she's a girl seems chauvinistic...but, now that you see where I'm coming from,

you'll realize I'm right. If I wanna end a fight, I'll put you to sleep. Because

she's a girl, it looks so much worse, like I'm some kinda pervert,"

Cyclops took a step forward, annoyed at Ranma's anger toward Jean, his wife,

"Hold up. There's no need to yell,"

Ranma sighed, "How come I feel like I'm the bad guy here? All I'm looking for

is some adamantium bring back home, is that so hard to ask?"

"Do you have ever seen adamantium?" Jean asked.

Ranma shook his head.

Logan stepped forward and extended his claws toward Ranma.

"Don't tell me now you're looking to fight me," Ranma sighed, "You'll be just

as easy to beat as that Psylocke chick. Actually, that'd be untrue since you're

a guy and I have no probs beating on guys,"

"Don't count on it, bub," Logan grinned, not one bit intimidated.

"Logan here is showing you his claws because it's coated with adamantium,"

Beast stated.

Ranma's eyes widened, "Really? Oh, now I get it. When I said I was looking for

adamantium last night, was that the reason why you extended your claws?"

"Well, it seems like we have ourselves a genuine detective here," Logan said.

"I guess didn't pick up on it until now," Ranma gave a meek smile.

Asuka walked forward and looked at the claws, "It looks a lot like steel,"

"It's very similar but astronomically stronger," Beast commented, "It's near

invulnerable,"

"You can touch it if you want," Logan said to Asuka, shrugging, "But be

careful of the bladed edge. It's extremely sharp,"

Asuka shook her head, "Nah, I'll take your word for it,"

"It's super strong?" Ranma asked, seemingly unconvinced.

"Even a royally pissed-off Hulk would have trouble bending it, and those claws

are only coated with adamantium," Beast state, "Forget about if it's actually

made of that stuff,"

"Hulk? Who the hell's that?" Ranma asked.

"Nevermind," Beast said, "It's not that important. The point I'm getting at is

that the adamantium you're looking for is the same stuff that coats Logan's

claws and skeletal structure,"

"So, where do I get this stuff?" Ranma asked, "The sooner we get it, the

faster we'll be gone,"

"They United States government has a large supply of adamantium in its liquid

state contained in one of its Nevada underground supply depots," Beast said.

"How can we get it?" Ranma asked, point to himself and Asuka, "Can we just

walk in there and buy it or something? How much does it cost?"

"I highly doubt you'd be able to buy it outright, especially if you intend to

buy enough to make a combustion engine," Beast said, "Adamantium is extremely

expensive to make, even in very small quantities,"

Ranma turned toward Asuka, "Hm, since we can't buy it, I guess we're gonna

hafta steal it,"

"We? And just want do you think I'll be able to do?" Asuka asked.

"I don't know what kind of world you come from," Beast said, "But stealing is

against the law here on this world,"

Ranma grinned, "It's every bit as illegal back home on our world. Of course,

it doesn't really bother me,"

"You do know, if you intend to do something like steal from the government, we

are obligated to try and stop you," Cyclops said.

Ranma smirked, "Won't you guys just turn a blind eye to it? We've only known

each other for a short time, and I kinda consider you guys like friends. It'd be

a shame to hafta beat the shit outta you guys,"

Everyone looked at one another, wondering if Ranma really was as powerful as

his arrogance seem to indicate. Of all of them, Logan seemed not one bit

intimidated. Jean seemed to be the only one aware that Ranma's power was far

greater than he let on.

"There's no need for us to go down that path," Beast said, hoping to break the

awkward silence of the room, "Ranma, we can not stand idle while you obviously

disregard our world's law and attempt to steal our government's supply of

adamantium, but that doesn't mean we can't help you out getting the components

necessary to make adamantium,"

"Okay, what's adamantium made of and where can we find the stuff?" Ranma

asked.

"That's a whole different story," Beast said meekly.

Ranma looked at the list of paper that Beast had printed out for him and was

reading off the list of components required to make adamantium. He and Asuka and

Beast and Nightcrawler were in Beast's laboratory.

No one else was around, having gone about to do something else. Since there

was no indication that Ranma would spar once again, there was no real need for

any of the other team members to hang around in hopes of seeing Ranma fight.

Ranma was by Beast while Nightcrawler and Asuka were off to one corner

talking. It turned out that Nightcrawler was raised in Germany and spoke German,

which made Asuka open up more to him. Eventually, she found out that

Nightcrawler was a really nice guy that sometimes played jokes on his friends.

"Wakandan Vibranium," Ranma said toward Beast's back as Beast types something

on his computer, "What the heck is that?"

"It's a meteoric ore," Beast answered.

The process and exact chemical composition for adamantium was a government

classified secret that had been leaked and contained not too long ago. Luckily,

Beast was one of the few people smart enough to had attained the secret without

being found out.

"And where the heck can I find something like that?" Ranma asked, "From the

sound of it, it sound rare as hell,"

"It's really rare," Beast said, "A large supply of it can be found in the

American Antarctic base, Melroy,"

"Melroy?" Ranma asked.

"It's a base that was set up over the crash site of a meteor that crash landed

in Antarctica several years ago," Beast answered, "It turns out that that meteor

is made up almost completely of that component, Wakandan Vibranium,"

Ranma glanced in Asuka's general direction.

After a moment, he started laughing.

"This is very funny," Ranma chuckled, "Three times I'm with Asuka. Three times

I hafta go to Antarctica. Twice with one Asuka and once with an alternate

version of her,"

Beast seemed confused about the comment.

"It's nothing," Ranma said, "I'm just thinking aloud,"

"Now, how do I go about getting my hands on this Wakandan Vibranium stuff?"

Ranma asked curiously, "Can I just fly to Antarctica and just pick it up?"

"Unfortunately, that isn't quite possible," Beast said, "It's a military base.

The army stationed there will not let you just walk in and grab a truckload of

that ore,"

Ranma sighed, "So, I guess I'm back to square one,"

"Seems so," Beast commented, "And once again, we'll be obligated to stop you,"

Ranma stood up, "Y'know what? Screw it. Forget about getting the components

one by one and making this adamantium stuff. I'll just go attack that supply

depot in Nevada and get what I need there. That way, I can skip that whole

process of making the stuff by myself. Sure, I'll hafta beat you guys up along

the way, but hey, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs,"

"One word of caution, you should not underestimate the X-Men," Beast

commented, "We should not be taken lightly,"

Ranma smiled, admiring Beast's sense of professionalism and duty. It reminded

him a bit of a cop that wouldn't hesitate to arrest his best friend for doing

something illegal. Sure, it would suck to be the best friend being arrested, but

having people that wouldn't hesitating in making such a choice would ultimately

make the world a better place.

Ranma grinned, "I'll keep that in mind. One word of caution to you guys as

well, don't underestimate me as well,"

Ranma and Asuka walked the streets of Salem Center, the city where the Xavier

School was located. Because of where the location of the school was, and the

fact that they were walking around close to the school, the area seemed very

suburban and considered of a mostly residential area.

"I'm gonna be a bad guy," Ranma had a big smirk on his face.

"W-what?" Asuka's eyes widened. Did she just hear that correctly?

"The X-Men are gonna be after me," Ranma said, "I'm gonna go after the liquid

adamantium in Nevada. Unfortunately, the X-Men are obligated to stop me. Seems

like there's no gray area here. It's gonna be a battle between the sides of good

and evil. Of course, they're kinda screwed since I'll be playing on the side of

evil,"

"Why on Earth would you do this?" Asuka had to ask.

"Because, I want that adamantium," Ranma said, "Isn't that a good enough

reason?"

"But-" she began.

"And because of what I intend to do, I can't have you following along," Ranma

said.

Asuka found herself at a loss of words for a moment, "W-what? What do you

mean?"

"It's most likely going to be dangerous what I'm gonna be doing," Ranma said,

"Actually, I know it's gonna be dangerous. I hafta fight the United States

military as well as the X-Men. I don't want you caught up in all of this,"

"What's going to happen to me?" Asuka asked, concerned.

Ranma said, "Nothing. You can hang around at the school for a day or two until

I get back. That way, you won't be liable for my actions since you won't be

considered my accomplice,"

Asuka became silent.

"It won't be that bad," Ranma said, "Didn't you make yourself a friend, that

blue devil or elf or whatever he is? You two seemed to get together pretty well.

I even heard you talking to him in German so I guess you guy's got a at least

one thing in common, language. Nightcrawler's his name I think? He can keep you

company until then,"

"Um, he's part of the X-Men, he will be one of the team members fighting you,"

Asuka said.

"Okay, I'll go easy on him," Ranma grinned.

"That's not what I mean," Asuka seemed annoyed at Ranma's joking.

"Then what?"

"I wanna come with you," she said.

Ranma shook his head, "No. Not this time. It's too dangerous. I don't really

know how powerful these people are, but I don't wanna risk you being an innocent

casualty. Besides, I'm only gonna be gone for a day at most,"

"But-" Asuka tried to argue.

Ranma's visage was serious and indicated that he was not going to budge, not

this time. It made Asuka realize that, as much as she would prefer to be close

to Ranma, Ranma was more concerned about her safety than anything else.

"I'm gonna head out tonight under the cover of darkness," Ranma said, "So,

since we've got some time before we leave, we can do something in the

meanwhile,"

Asuka smiled slightly. At least they had some time to spend together before

they had to split up. She might as well make the most of it.

"Got any idea what we should do in the meanwhile?" Ranma asked.

Asuka thought for a moment.

"Well, we're currently somewhere in the state of New York. I wouldn't mind

taking a stroll around Time Square and New York City and such,"

Ranma smiled warmly, "That sounds like a good idea,"

Ranma looked up toward the sky and noticed the dark clouds high in the sky.

"Looks like it's going to be bad weather," Asuka commented, "I wonder if we

should head back to the school or just get a hotel around here,"

"It's your choice," Ranma said, "Of course, considering we lack a thing called

money, what with the fact that I only carry yen, it'll be kinda hard to rent a

room around here,"

"Man, I can't believe we skipped out on paying for our meal," Asuka said, "The

money to our meal's gonna come right out of that waitress' paycheck. I feel

really bad,"

Ranma shrugged, "I'd be more than happy to pay, but how? We don't have money.

What, you want me to rob a bank? I kinda don't wanna really cause trouble unless

I hafta. Actually, if I hafta cause trouble, I'd like it to be the least

possible,"

"Still," Asuka didn't seem satisfied.

"What I should pickpocket someone?" he asked, "It's easy as hell,"

"It's still stealing," Asuka tried to be the voice of reason, "What if the

person needs the money. There's no way we could tell,"

"How about I pickpocket someone that looks rich and don't need the money?" he

asked, "If I'm gonna steal money from someone, how about I steal it from someone

that looks like he doesn't need to worry about money?"

Asuka sighed, "Your sense of logic is rather disturbing.

Ranma chuckled, "Heh, it's more fun seeing the world in gray than black and

white. I feel sorry for the X-Men. I wonder what they'd be doing if they were in

our situation. They'd probably be stuck at the restaurant washing dishes to pay

for their meal,"

"No, they'd probably be smart enough to bring money to pay for a meal," Asuka

commented.

"Well, since it seems like we don't have any money to rent a hotel," Ranma

stated, "And you seem against me robbing a bank for money, it looks like our

only alternatives would be to head back to the school and crash there,"

Asuka asked, "You think they'll put up with us another day? Keep in mind that

it would be really awkward, what with the fact that it's expected that you're

going to be fighting against them before long,"

"I'm pretty sure they'll put up with us," Ranma replied, "They need to respond

according to my actions. Since I ain't done nothing wrong, they have no right to

judge. Sure, they know what I'm gonna be doing not too long ago from now, but

that a different story. It's wrong to go after a guy for a crime he had not yet

committed,"

Meanwhile, back at the Xavier school, the X-Men were gathered around a

computer. In addition to the group was Storm and Rogue. Ranma's voice could be

heard emanating from one of the speakers, his conversation with Asuka being

transmitted to the computer via the small transmitter that was located within

the communicator device both Ranma and Asuka still wore.

"This guy's good," Logan grinned, "It's too bad that I ain't one of the good

guys,"

Logan had already realized that that girl, Asuka, seemed to be Ranma's

Achilles heel.

"Logan, we're not the kind of people that would take advantage of a situation

like that," Cyclops said, "I understand your logic since that seems like the

obvious way of keeping this guy in check, but I won't allow you or anyone else

to do something like that,"

"Since when did I ever listen to you?" Logan smirked.

Logan and Cyclops seemed to have a sense of animosity and respect toward one

another. In a sense, it was very much like Ranma and Ryoga, minus the fact that

Ranma and Ryoga actually do try to kill each other from time to time. This sense

of hostility toward one another was a result of their clashing personalities.

Logan walked a gray path, never hesitating to kill anyone he considered a bad

person. Cyclops always tried to go the way of the diplomatic approach and solve

everything as peacefully as possible.

Cyclops was the team leader and usually barked out the orders whenever they

were on a mission. Logan was the kind of person that never took orders from

anyone which always resulted in a clash of personalities.

"Logan," Cyclops said sternly, "We're not that kind of people,"

"You may not," Logan said, "But if things boils down to that, you already know

I won't hesitated to use that girl to our advantage,"

"Look, this Ranma guy has done nothing wrong," Jean stepped forward and

between her husband and Logan, "And Logan, I can't believe you would even

consider using that girl as leverage against Ranma,"

Logan let out an annoyed breath. Still in love with Jean, despite her being

happily married to Cyclops, Logan tended to allow himself to accept Jean's views

for the better.

"Correction, Jean," Beast said, "Ranma and Asuka skipped out on paying for

their meals,"

"You understand what I mean," Jean said, "Ranma's not someone like Magneto.

We've all fought against some very powerful mutants before, but this guy gives

me the creeps at the thought of having to fight against him. If you think about

it, having someone like that on the team would be great,"

"I don't know about that, Jean," Cyclops said, skeptic, "Yes, he seems like an

exceptional fighter, but that isn't everything. His personality indicates that

he's been so powerful for so long that he's taken on a 'I'll do whatever I want

and no one can stop me' mentality. He needs someone to knock him down a peg or

two,"

"What better way than for the X-Men to do it?" Logan had to agree.

"I think leaving well enough alone is the better approach," Jean commented,

"If this guy's only weakness is that girl, Asuka, and we mess with him that way,

then that means he will be against us from then on. Having a guy like that

against us is not something I recommend. It's better to have him as either a

friend or even an acquaintance of the X-Men than an enemy,"

"We only saw him spar against Psylocke for a short time," Logan interjected,

"We've dealt with much more powerful opponents before,"

"Yes, but who's to say he isn't the kind of opponent to, say, join up with

Magneto to get back at us for what we've done, God forbid we use Asuka as our

trump card and things go horribly wrong?" Jean said.

"You guys seem awfully worried about what this guy is capable of," Storm said,

silent until now.

Storm and Rogue hadn't been around that morning to see Ranma's capabilities

since they had volunteered to go halfway across the planet to help put out a

major forest fire that was spreading over in China. Now that they

were back, they were surprised to find out that Ranma had easily defeated

Psylocke and had left the school to visit New York City.

Storm was a beautiful woman from Africa with a long flowing mane of white

hair. An extremely powerful mutant, she possess the ability to control the

weather more or less.

"We're not necessarily worried about him completely," Jean said, "It's just

from my point of view, it's better to have him consider us his friends than his

enemies. We've got enough enemies as it is,"

"Surely this guy can't be that hard to deal with if we hafta deal with him,"

Rogue said in that southern accent of hers.

A southern belle with long brown hair with white bangs, Rogue possess the

devastatingly powerful mutant ability to absorb the memories, abilities, and

characteristics of anyone she touched. Unable to control this ability made her a

prisoner of her own powers, making her unable to feel human touch without the

risk of absorbing all of the person's powers and abilities. This was why she

always wore special gloves.

"Well, if we have to fight against this guy, we'll be ready," Rogue said.

"Only time will tell," Beast added.

Back on Ranma and Asuka, the two of them walked the busy streets of New York

City.

"Man, it's gonna rain soon," Ranma said, "We better head back,"

"You think something bad's gonna happen?" Asuka had to ask.

Ranma chuckled, "Yeah, something bad has to happen. Those aren't rain clouds

above us. Those are dark clouds. Y'know, the stuff usually used to show a sense

of foreboding,"

"You don't seem all that worried," Asuka felt a bit relieved.

"What the heck's there to worry about?"

Beast furiously typed at his computer.

"There's got to be a way to avoid having to do this," he said to himself. He

had no doubts that he and the X-Men would fight against Ranma if he decided to

actually go through with his plan to steal some adamantium from the military and

cause massive damage in the process, but he was sure there was some peaceful way

of avoiding having to do so.

"Whatcha looking for, sugah?" Rogue approached him from behind, placing a

gloved hand on one of his furry shoulders.

"I'm trying to find another way for Ranma to get the adamantium he's looking

for while avoiding the need to steal it from the government and use having to

fight him in the process," Beast replied, "I'm trying to find a place where

Ranma could find the Wakandan Vibranium without having to attack anyone or steal

it from anyone. All the other components necessary to make the adamantium we can

find with no problem. It's the Vibranium that's the hard part since it's so

rare,"

"There isn't an abundant supply of resources to produce adamantium that can be

easily found," Rogue commented, "And if there is, there's a good chance the

government's already got its hands on the resources to do so,"

Beast sighed, "That's true,"

He continued to type furiously, hoping to find any information on the

whereabouts of some Vibranium that the government don't already have in its

possession.

After a few minutes, his eyes widened in surprise and relief.

"Bingo, I've found it," Beast said.

"What? Where?" Rogue asked curiously.

"There's going to be an auction for it a few days from now over in the

Philippines," Beast smiled, "We can have Ranma bid for it. If he wins, he will

have acquired the Vibranium legitimately,"

"A few days? I reckon that Ranma person wouldn't mind waiting a few days to

get what he wants," Rogue stated, "But if he's going to have to bid at an

auction for it, exactly where is he going to get the money to pay for the stuff

if he manages to win the bid?"

"Unfortunately, that's a different story,"

Ranma arrived back at the Xavier school in no time, courtesy of the wings he

still possessed. He carried Asuka with him. Oddly enough, it wasn't as if he

even needed to fly. He could just use a portal back there if he wanted to.

Perhaps it was because he didn't want Asuka to get disoriented again that made

him travel the slow, yet super-sonic, way of flight.

As expected, Ranma was greeted at the entrance to the school by all the X-Men.

The X-Men, unaware that Ranma could bring forth wings, was surprised at what

they saw.

"Oh, these things," Ranma pointed toward his wings, "I got 'em from when I

defeated an Angel. It's not like I need 'em to fly, but they look cool so I

continue to use 'em,"

The team was caught off-guard when the wings suddenly extended and disappeared

into his back. All that remained that indicated that he had wings were the holes

in the back of his shirt where the wings had pierced through.

"That's a rather nice trick," Beast said, "Very useful for when you're around

humans. It helps conceal your identity,"

"Y'mean my wings?" Ranma asked, "Oh, they're mostly decorative,"

He noticed Rogue and Storm.

"Hello, we haven't met," Ranma noticed Rogue and Storm, "I'm Ranma,"

He extended his hand forward for either Storm or Rogue to shake. After a

moment of hesitation, both females shook his hand individually.

"We saw you last night," Storm said.

Ranma found himself staring at Storm longer than expected. Asuka noticed this

but said nothing. Instead, she silently glared toward him.

"Wow, you remind me of Urd a bit," Ranma stated, "Long white hair. Dark skin,"

"Urd?" Storm asked, wondering if this Urd person was some old ex-girlfriend of

Ranma's.

"She's God," Ranma said, "I know her. She visits me from time to time but

doesn't stay around long,"

Everyone looked at one another. Everyone had a very open-mind, what with the

fact that they had seen quite a bit over their lives, seen things like alien

races, astral beings, an even deities, but never had they met a person that

claimed to actually know 'God'

"God is female?" Jean seemed amused, smirking toward the guys of the group.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. I saw her naked several times. She's definitely female,"

"Ranma," Asuka said.

"Oh come on," Ranma sighed, "Will you quit it? Dontcha get tired of being

pissed at me?"

Asuka continued to glare.

"Hm, it seems like you don't," Ranma shrugged.

He turned toward the group.

"Can she stay with you guys?" he asked without hesitation, "I'm gonna be gone

for about a day and will be back to pick her up and head back home then,"

"To go after the adamantium?" Cyclops asked.

Ranma nodded.

"Well, there's no need to go down that path. I have good news," Beast said.

"What, you saved shitloads on car insurance?" Ranma chuckled.

"Huh?" Beast was confused about what Ranma asked.

"Nothing," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "I was watching television on this

world and saw this funny commercial. That's all. What good news are you talking

about?"

Beast stepped forward, "We've found a way to get you the adamantium you're

looking for without having to resort to attacking the government,"

"Really?" Ranma smiled, "Cool, how? I'm all ears,"

"There's going to be an auction a few days from now in the Philippines," Beast

answered, "Perhaps you can wait a few days and attend the auction and bid for it

instead? That way, you'll be getting what you're looking for legitimately,"

Ranma smiled, "That sounds like a good idea. Now, the problem is that I have

no money. Exactly how am I gonna go about paying for it?"

"That's an aspect I haven't quite worked out yet,"

Ranma and Asuka sat near a large rock that late afternoon. It just happened

that that was the same rock Ranma had picked up earlier in the day. Since they

wouldn't be going anywhere, they had to do something to pass the time. Asuka

opted to just sit around and just pass the time talking. Ranma didn't seem to

mind.

"So, you're going to be staying, huh?" Asuka asked, barely able to contain her

happiness.

Ranma placed a hand on Asuka's head and rubbed it a few times, as if he were

petting her, "Yep. Looks like you're gonna hafta put up with me until then,"

"Oh joy," Asuka said sarcastically, assuming her usual personality when around

Ranma.

Ranma sighed a bit, "It's kinda too bad. I wouldn't mind fighting these X-Men

people and seeing how well they'd do against me,"

"What, you want to fight them?" Asuka was surprised to hear herself saying.

He nodded, "Kinda. Even though the sparring session I had against that girl,

Psylocke, was completely one sided, it was still fun initially. I kinda miss

it,"

"But you spar against Shinji every day," Asuka said.

Ranma chuckled, "Yes, I do, but it's a different form of sparring. I go easy

on him. I haven't been in a good fight in a long time. I kinda miss the

excitement,"

"What about Ryoga? Why not fight him?" she asked.

Ranma shook his head, "It's still one-sided, consider where my power levels is

right now. It'd be fun to have fought him a while ago, before all that crap with

me becoming God and being reborn and so on. Those fights were fun,"

"Why do you enjoy fighting so much? There's much more to life than fighting,"

Asuka commented.

"Like what?" Ranma grinned leaning forward, bringing his face so close to hers

that she could feel his warm breath against her skin, "Oh, like love?"

Asuka blushed a deep shade of red when she realized just how close Ranma was.

It startled her, causing her to lean back to get some distance between the two

of them, resulting in her falling backwards and off the rock.

Ranma reached out and grabbed Asuka's hand, righting her before she fell off

the rock completely. He laughed when he noticed how flushed Asuka looked.

"I'm just messing with ya," Ranma chuckled, "Let's just say that I've been

fighting so much when I was young that I got used to it,"

"Um, so, what should we do for the next few days?" Asuka asked, wanting to

change the subject.

He shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe I'll go teach the X-Men how to fight,"

"Teach them how to fight?" Asuka asked, "Although I never saw them fight, I've

got a funny feeling they know how to fight, even if it isn't through the use of

martial arts,"

"I'm sure I can teach 'em a thing or two," Ranma said confidently, "Hey, what

time is it?"

Asuka looked at her watch, "It's a ten after five,"

"Ah, I should go greet that Psylocke chick," Ranma stated, "She's gonna be

waking up from when I hit her sleep pressure points in around ten minutes from

now. I figure it's best that I be there to tell her what happened and why she's

in a bed when she remembered being in the heat of a sparring session against

me,"

"Um, okay,"

Psylocke opened her eyes, feeling more refreshed than she had ever felt

before. She could not remember having slept so soundly in the longest time.

She stretched her slender arms from her body and yawned, wondering what time

it was.

As she stretched, the blankets covering her fell down to her wait to reveal

that she was wearing battle uniform. This made her realize that she remembered

sparring against Ranma. Why was she in a bed?

"What the?" she asked, looking around, trying to figure out where she was.

Upon quick inspection of the room, she realized she was in the Med-lab of the

Xavier school.

When she noticed Ranma and a young red-haired girl she didn't recognize

standing by the foot of the bed, she felt a bit confused.

"Sleep well?" Ranma asked, smiling.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I hit your sleep pressure points," Ranma replied, "You've been sleeping

soundly for a few hours,"

"He's right," Beast approached her bed, "I monitored your vital signs while

you were unconscious and it gave every indication that you were sleeping the

whole time. Of course, you were so deep in sleep that we couldn't wake you up

and had to wait until you naturally came to,"

The only people in the room were Psylocke, Beast, Ranma, and Asuka.

Ranma said, "Actually, I could've woken up her whenever, but I figure it's

better to just let her sleep. I'd hafta hit virtually the same pressure points

to get her to wake up, but it would provide for quite a bit of misunderstanding

when she opened her eyes and saw me, um, seemingly groping her,"

The sudden image of Ranma with his hand on one of her breasts entered her

thoughts, "Y-you grabbed me,"

Ranma held up his hands defensively, "Don't go misunderstanding or nothing. I

did that to put and end to your attacking because you won't stop trying to hit

me after I said I wanted to stop countless times,"

Psylocke regarded Ranma cautiously, skeptic about if he was telling the truth

or not.

"Oh yeah, this is Asuka," Ranma jerked a thumb toward the young girl, "She's

with me,"

"Nice to meet you," Asuka said.

"Likewise, I'm Psylocke," she said.

"You're a good martial artist," Ranma commented, "You've got good form. I like

your form,"

"Um, thanks, I guess," she said, wondering if he was talking about the way she

attacked or the 'form' that meant her body.

"Well, since you're perfectly fine, I best be on my way," Ranma headed toward

the door, "I figured I'd just be here for when you wake up since most people are

very confused when they wake up after having their sleep pressure point hit.

Most people don't know what the heck happened,"

"What kind of technique did you use on me?" she had to ask.

"Pressure points," Ranma answered, "Everyone has 'em. It's the easiest way to

incapacitate an opponent,"

"By putting them to sleep?" she asked.

"Well, putting them to sleep is one easy way to get someone to stop attacking

you," Ranma said, "There are many many more,"

"Like what?" Psylocke asked curiously.

"This and that," Ranma shrugged, "I don't really care to get into it. There's

too many I know to list out. I don't use 'em anyway except for the sleep

pressure point so there's no real need to know what pressure point of yours I'm

capable of hitting. Actually, I'm definitely not gonna tell you because I

accidentally told the girls back on my world about one and they're always on my

case about pressing a certain pressure point...to make them relax. What a buncha

crock,"

"Make people relax?" Beast ask, "Like that sleep pressure point?"

Ranma said, "Something like that,"

Psylocke and Beast looked at one another, wondering what pressure point Ranma

was talking about.

"Oh, you mean the orgasm pressure point?" Asuka blurted out curious.

"Asuka!" Ranma said, "Why'd you go an say that!"

"An orgasm pressure point?" Beast narrowed his eyes, "You're kidding me,

right?"

Ranma nodded vehemently, "Yes, I was only kidding. That doesn't exist,"

Unfortunately, Ranma didn't seem all that convincing.

Ranma and Asuka found themselves sitting on that same rock again. It was late

into the evening. The two of them had recently got back from eating dinner

downtown shortly after they left Psylocke and Beast at the Med-Lab.

"Uh uh," Ranma shook his head, "I ain't showing no one that. I pressed that

pressure point on Misato, and look how she turned out. Now all she thinks about

is finding a way to get me to press it again,"

"Is that why she always acts like, well, like the way she acts?" Asuka asked.

"Bingo," Ranma said, "However, it's been helpful at times. Considering all the

trouble I've put Urd through fixing up all the messes I've created, if it

weren't for that pressure point, she'd probably hold a grudge against me,"

"Lettme get this straight, Urd doesn't hold any grudge against you for

screwing up worlds and she having to fix 'em up after you because you press that

pressure point," Asuka couldn't believe what she was saying.

"Yep," Ranma said, "Urd lets it slide in exchange that I press the pressure

point. She considers it an even trade so it don't bother me,"

"W-w-whoa, and EVEN trade?" Asuka gasped, "She told me she had to completely

recreate worlds from scratch that you've messed up simply because of your

presence on there causing its path to go spiraling out of control,"

Ranma shrugged, "Why're you asking me that? She considers it a fair trade, so

I don't mind. It's doesn't cost me anything to press it so you've got no

complaint from me,"

"So how come Urd gets her pressure point pressed multiple times and regular

people don't?" Asuka asked. Based on what Misato had described of that pressure

point, she felt bad that she was missing out on a sensation 'that's so

pleasurable that it can change a person's religion', whatever that meant.

Ranma said, "Urd's got a lot of willpower, enough to actually fight off that,

I guess, addiction to wanting more. Besides, she's God. She could do anything so

don't put it past her to just will the addiction away if she wanted to,"

"Man, I've always wondered why Urd doesn't just, well, kill you," Asuka

commented, "And now I know. I've talked to her several times, and I've heard her

rant at how aggravating it was trying to fix up your messes. It's always made me

wonder why she seems to never actually go through and, well, kill you after what

you put her through,"

Ranma grinned, "Yep. I'm the man. She's addicted to the 'Big-O' I can give

her,"

"'Big-O'? Is that what you call it?" Asuka asked, "That sounds like the name

of an anime or something, not the legendary pressure point I figured it should

be,"

"Legendary, huh? Interesting," Ranma smirked, "Is that what everyone back home

considers it?"

Asuka blushed a deep shade of red.

Ranma burst out laughing, "Man, I never knew that. Man, I'm learning something

new every day,"

He became a bit more serious, "Man, I should never have showed Misato that

pressure point. It takes years for it to leave her system and for her body and

mind to forget that sensation. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't hafta worry

about the consequences, that being Misato's dramatic change in personality,"

Asuka yawned.

"Wow, you're tired already?" Ranma said, "It's only around ten,"

"I know," she said, "I guess all that walking around the city tired me out,"

"All right, I'll walk you back to the bedroom," Ranma said, "It's nice of

Xavier to let us crash here for the time being. He's a really accommodating

hosting,"

"I agree,"

Together, Ranma and Asuka headed back toward the school.

Ranma didn't need to sleep.

Therefore, he didn't have to worry about getting some rest like everyone else.

This led him with time to himself early in the morning to just hang around and

just enjoy the night.

As Asuka slept peacefully in her bed, Ranma decided to wander around the

school and look around. It was only around midnight and he was pretty sure

someone was awake. He wouldn't mind getting a tour of the place. He had yet to

see the entire school since he and Asuka arrived.

Walking down one of the hallways, Ranma glanced through one of the windows on

the doors to a classroom. The classroom was completely empty.

"I wonder what kinda stuff they teach here," he asked himself.

He assumed it was something scholastic, like History or Math or such. This

school reminded him very much of a school back home. Of course, unlike the

school back home, this place had its own dormitory for its students and staff.

As Ranma glanced out a window he was walking by, he noticed a figure standing

in the middle of the front field. He didn't recognize the figure at first, but

after a short while, he realized the figure was doing some katas.

"Oh, it's Psylocke," Ranma said.

He wondered why she was doing katas this late at night. But then again,

considering what happened to her and how she was easily defeated in that

sparring session against him, perhaps that was a good enough reason to practice

more.

Bored and with nothing much to do at the moment, Ranma figured he might as

well go chat with Psylocke. Perhaps she won't mind giving him a tour.

Ranma exited the front of the school and crossed the front field to where

Psylocke was. It wasn't until he said something did Psylocke stop what she was

doing.

"R-Ranma," she said, startled, "How long were you watching me?"

"I just got here," Ranma answered.

Psylocke said nothing. She couldn't believe how Ranma had somehow managed to

get this close to her without her detecting him. As a martial artist, that was

extremely shameful to allow something like that to happen.

"I saw y'from the window," Ranma said, "Figured I'd say hi. No hard feelings

about what happened at the sparring session I hope,"

"No, no hard feelings," Psylocke responded, reluctantly admitting, "I

should've stopped after you said we should stop after the tenth time. I guess I

got caught up in the excitement of sparring against a true martial artist,"

Ranma nodded, "I understand. Sometimes, when I'm sparring against one of my

students, Shinji, I get a bit too excited and accidentally knock him out,"

"Care to spar again?" Psylocke asked from out of the blue. It couldn't hurt to

ask even though she was pretty sure of the upcoming response.

"I'll pass," he said, "No offense, but sparring against me is pretty one-

sided, and in my favor. It's best you fight against someone around your skill

level,"

Psylocke couldn't help but feel very annoyed at Ranma's arrogance.

Ranma could tell by the look on Psylocke's face that she was annoyed at his

answer and how he seemed to disregard her fighting skill when comparing her to

his own.

"Didn't you learn from our previous fight that it's useless to spar against

me?" Ranma asked, "You couldn't hit me and was giving it all you've got.

Remember, in a real fight, I can actually hit back if I wanted to,"

Psylocke said, "Then how come you didn't?"

"Dontcha understand? It's useless to fight me," Ranma said, slightly annoyed,

"I'm speaking the truth. And it's not because you're bad at fighting. Far from

it. It's because I'm just that much better,"

"Aren't we rather modest?" Psylocke said in annoyance.

Ranma shrugged, not caring.

"How about if the two of us take you on, bub?" came a voice.

Ranma and Psylocke turned their attention toward Logan as he approached the

two of them. Logan, tending not to sleep well at night due to nightmares of his

mysterious past, had happened to look out the widow and spotted the two of them.

"Logan," Psylocke said.

"I didn't feel like sleeping and wanted to see what the two of you were up

to," Logan said, "As I came toward you, I overheard you trying to convince Ranma

to spar against you again,"

"The two of you against me?" Ranma said, "Not interested,"

Ranma had to admit that he was curious as to how good a fighter Logan was.

There was this aura to Logan that indicated he was a fighter of exceptional

skill. He could sense it. However, a person of exceptional skill will not beat a

person of basically infinitely more exceptional skill.

"I'm interested in seeing how I fair against you," Logan asked, "We can have

ourselves a lil wager,"

"A wager? Like what?" Ranma perked an eyebrow.

"If you beat me, I get you a six-pack of whatever beer you like," Logan said.

"And if you beat me?" Ranma asked hypothetically.

"You get the beer," Logan said.

Ranma thought about it for a moment before he finally said, "Nah. I'm not

interested. I don't drink beer,"

"What makes you think you'll win?" Logan grinned confidently.

"I dunno, a hunch I guess," Ranma grinned.

A set of claws shot out from both of Logan's fists, dashing toward Ranma, "I'm

going to look forward to finding out,"

"I never agreed to a fight," Ranma stated, stepping to the side just as

Logan's attempted swipe at his stomach missed.

When Logan took a second swipe with his other set of claws.

"Hey, I never agreed to a fight," Ranma repeated himself, annoyed.

Logan swiped at Ranma a third time, missing him by inches.

Ranma, annoyed that Logan seemed actually intent on cutting him with those

claws, figured it was best to just end the fight as quickly as possible. A quick

slap to the side of Logan's face sent the man falling down to his knees and then

down to the ground unconscious.

"Oh man, you just knocked him out," Psylocke was shocked. It was shocking

because someone like Logan was extremely hard to knock out, especially through

physical means like a well placed punch.

Ranma grinned, "Heh, I just bitch slapped him and he's already down for the

count. He doesn't seem all that tough,"

"Man, if Cyclops was here, he'd be laughing right now," Psylocke had to say.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" Ranma asked, turning toward Psylocke, scratching

his head.

"He and Logan here don't get along all that much," she said, "So seeing him

sprawled out on the ground unconscious would probably bring a smile to his

face,"

"How come they don't get along?" he asked, "Clash in personalities?"

"More or less," she said, "Look out-"

Suddenly, Ranma was tackled from behind, caught completely off-guard. He ended

tumbling forward where he rolled on the ground and up to his feet, holding his

attacker off the ground in a death-grip by the neck.

"What the?" Ranma was shocked when he realized he was looking at Logan, who

was supposed to be unconscious, "I thought-"

"You thought wrong," Logan had a big smirk on his face, a pair of claws held

forward and right under Ranma's chin, ready to be plunged into his neck in a

moment's notice had their fight been for real.

Ranma was silent for a moment as he allowed the situation to sink in. He knew,

that without a shadow of a doubt, that he had knocked Logan out cold with that

slap to the side of his face. How could he had gotten up from that?

"You lose, bub," Logan said. His neck hurt from being squeeze so tightly, but

he knew he was at the advantage since his claws could do much more damage to

Ranma in a split second than Ranma could do to him in that same time-span.

Ranma let go of Logan and placed him down on his feet. Logan couldn't help but

rub at his neck, still feeling the sensation of nearly being choked to death

under Ranma's vice-like grip. He was a bit confused how Ranma had managed to

counter a body tackle from behind and reverse it into a one-armed chokehold, and

in a standing position after having been knocked to the ground first.

"I'll letcha have that one," Ranma smiled, "I must say, that definitely caught

me off-guard, you getting back up after I had obviously knocked you out. I dunno

how that happened, but I'm definitely impressed,"

"You owe me a six-pack," Logan said, grinning, "Remember?"

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten," Ranma said, "I'll have a cold one for you

first thing in the morning for breakfast,"

"Sounds good to me," Logan said.

"That's gross," Psylocke had to say, "Drinking beer for breakfast,"

"It's an acquired taste," Logan countered.

Ranma laughed.

Logan headed for the school, "I'm gonna head in now. Talk to you two later,"

Ranma and Psylocke found themselves alone once again.

"It seems like you've underestimated Logan," Psylocke said to break the

silence.

Ranma grinned mischievously, "Seems so,"

"What's with that smile?" Psylocke gave him an odd look.

"Nothing," Ranma shrugged, "However, it would've been funny to see the

expression on his face when my AT Field kicked in,"

"AT Field? What's that?" she asked.

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nothing,"

There was another moment of awkward silence.

"Say, you doing anything?" he asked.

"Aside from practicing, no," she said, "I was finishing up when you came out.

How come?"

"Care to gimme a tour of the school?"

Psylocke regarded Ranma for a moment. She had to admit, Ranma's way of speech

was rather amusing. He seemed completely at ease in her presence.

"Sure,"

Asuka stretched her arms as she opened her eyes.

She felt refreshed. That was a really good night's sleep.

Looking around, she took a moment to orient herself and come to realization

that she was still on that world with mutants and in the guestroom of the Xavier

school. She also noticed that Ranma wasn't around and was most likely wandering

around in the hallways.

Looking at the digital clock by her bed, she noticed it was around eight,

early by her standards.

Not feeling the need to go back to sleep, Asuka got out of bed and changed out

of her pajamas and into a pair of clean clothes.

As she was getting dressed, there came a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's Kurt," came Nightcrawler's answer.

"C'min," she said.

Nightcrawler entered the room, "Good morning. Sleep well?"

She nodded, "Morning, Kurt. Man, what perfect timing. I got up not five

minutes ago and you seem to knock on the door at the prefect time. The same goes

for yesterday,"

"Oh, that's because Jean told me you were up," he answered.

"How does she know?" Asuka looked around, "What, is there some kind of hidden

camera watching me?"

She became very self-conscious of herself. She got changed in that room and

had stripped down to her bra and panties several times to change in an out of

her sleep clothes.

"There's no hidden camera, no," Nightcrawler said, "Jean could tell

telepathically when you woke up. She relayed the message that you were up to me

and I came to get you,"

"Oh," Asuka felt stupid for having assumed the worst.

"We figure, since Ranma isn't around, you'd want to know where he was," he

sated, "I came here to let you know. I guess it would have been easier to leave

a note or something, but since you don't know your way around the school, it's

better if I showed you the way if you planned on looking for him,"

"So, where is Ranma anyway?" she asked.

"Down in the Danger Room," he answered, "Well, last I heard, he offered to

show Psylocke a few martial arts techniques, to add to her repertoire. The two

of them are in the room together probably training right this very moment,"

"Can you take me to him?" Asuka quickly asked, suddenly feeling jealous for

some odd reason.

"Sure," the oblivious Nightcrawler said.

Psylocke had a blush on her cheeks as she found herself looking up at Ranma's

face as he grinned down at her.

"That's what I call 'The Perfect Shoulder Throw'," Ranma said, extending his

hand for Psylocke to take to get back to her feet.

Psylocke looked visibly confused, "How'd you managed to do that to me? You

told me exactly what you were going to do and I was perfectly ready to avoid and

reverse it, but I couldn't,"

"It's what the name means, a perfect shoulder throw," he said, "It's a move

that can be neither avoided nor countered, no matter how strong or skilled you

are,"

"Where'd you learn something like that?" she asked.

"I developed it myself," he said proudly.

"Well, it's a very effective move," she said.

"Thanks," he smiled warmly.

"Can you teach me that?" she asked.

"Sure, that's why I showed you it in the first place," he said, "I wanted to

show you how effective it is. Now I'll show you how to execute it correctly,"

A few minutes later, Asuka arrived in the adjoining to the Danger Room. As she

entered and looked through the window and into the Danger Room, she saw Ranma

standing directly behind Psylocke, his chest pressed against her back, one of

his hands on her buttocks.

"What the!" Asuka's eyes widened, pointing, "What the hell are they doing?"

Nightcrawler looked through the window and made a guess, "I really don't know.

Perhaps Ranma's not teaching her anything at the moment,"

Asuka knocked on the glass window which seemed to cause the two occupant of

the Danger Room to stop what they were doing to look in the direction of the

noise.

"If you plan on communicating with them, you need to talk through the

microphone," Nightcrawler handed her a small stand with a microphone on it.

"What are you guys doing?" Asuka asked, annoyed.

"Teaching her how to prevent and avoid a shoulder throw," Ranma said, his

voice automatically emanating from a speaker within the adjoining room.

"Um, I'm kind of hungry," Asuka said, thinking quick on her feet, "Can we go

out and get something to eat?"

"Sure," Ranma said. He turned toward Psylocke and said, "We can continue this

another time,"

"Okay," Psylocke seemed somewhat disappointed. As to why, she had no real

idea. She assumed it was her impatience to learn more martial arts from someone

like Ranma and not her beginning to enjoy his company.

"I'll be back later," Ranma said, "Talk to you then,"

It wasn't until several minutes after Ranma left with Asuka realized that

Ranma had not offered to invite her to go eat with him. So used to random

strangers constantly hitting on her, this was quite a change in events to have

been so easily brushed aside. Not that she truly cared, but how come Ranma

didn't seem to indicate any interest in her? Every guy she has ever meet felt

some form of attraction toward her. How come Ranma was different. Was she losing

her beauty or something?

Psylocke left the Danger Room where she saw Nightcrawler.

"Something the matter?" Nightcrawler asked curious.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked.

"Huh?" Nightcrawler wondered where the heck that question came from and

exactly how to answer such a question without angering the powerful mutant.

Ranma and Asuka found themselves in a convenience store shortly after they had

eaten breakfast. Because of last night's wager with Logan, Ranma found himself

needing to buy Logan a six-pack of beer. Funnily enough, as to where he got the

money to pay for what he needs, no one really knows. Actually, Ranma knew but

told no one.

"Why are we stopping here?" Asuka asked, following Ranma into the convenience

store.

"Buying some beer," he said.

"You don't drink," she stated.

He answered, "No, but Logan does and I owe him a six-pack. We made a bet and

he won so I owe him a six-pack now,"

"Oh, okay," Asuka said, "What kinda bet?"

"Nothing exciting," Ranma shrugged, "We sparred against one another and he got

the better of me,"

"He won a sparring match against you?" Asuka was absolutely shocked to hear.

"More or less," Ranma said, "He made me realized I underestimated him so I

gave him the match. It's not like he would've actually beaten me for real or

anything, it's just that I have to give credit where it's due,"

"I don't really understand what you mean by that, but I guess he must be a

really good fighter to have actually gotten the better you, especially since

fighting is your forte," Asuka commented, "Then against, I'm not as surprised

that it was him over anyone else. I had a funny feeling he was a really good

fighter for some odd reason,"

Ranma smiled, "Yep. I guess, after having been learning martial arts from me

for so long, even someone like you can pick up on a person's potential as a

fighter,"

"Ha ha," Asuka didn't seem amused.

"What did he do that made you underestimate him?" she had to ask, believing it

had to be something totally incredible.

"He got up when he shouldn'tve," Ranma said flatly, "I was positive I knocked

him unconscious. I turn around for a second, and then suddenly, he's conscious

again and tackles me from behind. Whatever he did to get up after I hit him, I

had to give him some props. I called it quits after that,"

"But why? It's not like you have anything to worry about," Asuka said, "You

have an AT Field,"

"I know," Ranma grinned, "But at that point in time, like I said, I wanted to

give credit where it's due. For him to have gotten up, it sure surprised the

heck outta me,"

Ranma grabbed himself a case of beer and paid for it while Asuka hung around

the magazine rack that was located on the outside of the story, checking out

what kind of magazines that world had to offer. To her surprise, she recognized

some magazines from back home.

Finished with what he needed to do, Ranma approached the magazine rack as

well.

"Anything interesting?" Ranma asked.

"Actually, yeah," she replied, "I recognize some of these magazine titles. It

seems like this world and our world is similar in some aspects while completely

different in other aspects,"

"Ooh," Ranma grinned as he picked up a porno book.

"What are you doing?" Asuka said.

"What's it look like I'm doing?" he replied, "I'm looking at a porno book. No

hidden agenda there,"

Asuka let out an annoyed breath to show her discontent on Ranma's vulgarity.

"Ranma?" came a voice.

Ranma turned around and was pleasantly surprised to see Storm, Rogue,

Psylocke, and Jean. All of them were dressed in casual attire and were on their

way shopping.

"Hi girls," Ranma smiled warmly, "Off shopping or something?"

"Actually, yes," Jean said, "How'd you know?"

"Girls do that all the time back on my world," Ranma chuckled, "Seems like the

girls on this world ain't any different,"

"And what would the 'girls' back on your world do after hearing such a

chauvinistic remark like that?" Storm asked, narrowing her eyes. Although she

had barely me Ranma, there was something about him that seemed to rub her the

wrong way.

Ranma shrugged, "Nothing I guess. It's not like they can do anything to me,"

Rogue narrowed her eyes, "I'm pretty sure we 'girls' aren't quite like the

'girls' you know. We're the kind of 'girls' you shouldn't get angry,"

"I'll take your word for it," Ranma didn't seem intimidated.

"What's with the six-pack?" Psylocke asked curiously, "You drink?"

That seemed strange because Ranma didn't look like the type that drank to her.

"No, I don't drink," Ranma answered, "It's for Logan,"

"Oh yeah, from that wager you had with Logan," Psylocke said.

"What wager?" Storm asked.

"Logan beat Ranma in a sparring session so now he has to buy the beer,"

Psylocke said.

This came as surprising news to Jean, Storm, and Rogue. Given the fact someone

like Psylocke couldn't touch Ranma, they had a good feeling that Logan would

have just as much trouble, despite being an amazing fighter.

"Yep, I lost to him," Ranma grinned. The grin left them wondering if he truly

lost to Logan or perhaps gave him the match. There was just something about the

way Ranma carried himself that indicated he was a lot more powerful than he let

on.

"What're you reading?" Psylocke asked, pointing toward the magazine in his

hand, "Is that a porno?"

"It is," Jean said, "How can you read that garbage?"

"Reading? What's there to read with a magazine like that," Ranma said, "I was

looking at the naked girls,"

The group found themselves at a loss of words. This guy seemed completely

oblivious to the fact that all four of them found the exploitation of women to

be very degrading.

"For your information, I can't even read the magazine since it's in a foreign

language to me," Ranma stated, "Heh, but then again, why the heck would I be

reading a magazine like this anyway?"

"You put up with this stuff?" Jean asked Asuka whom had been silently next to

him all this time.

"Why're you getting angry?" Ranma didn't understand, "I'm a guy. Something

like this is perfectly natural. This is what guys look at,"

"My husband doesn't have smut mags," Jean said confidently.

Ranma burst out laughing, "Okay, if you say so,"

Jean was at a complete loss of words. Ranma's words seemed to have placed a

sense of doubt as to the validity of her claim.

"Asuka, would you like to come with us?" Jean turned toward the young girl,

wanting to change the subject.

Asuka cast Ranma a glance, wondering how she should respond.

"Go ahead, you're a girl, that's what girls do, they go shopping," Ranma

nudged.

"Nah, I'll stay," Asuka said, figuring it was better to hang out with Ranma

than the others. This was because she barely knew them and would feel

uncomfortable hanging out with them. She would rather put up with the

aggravation that usually came with being around Ranma than the awkwardness of

being around virtually complete strangers.

"Sugah, you can come along, if you want," Rogue said to Asuka politely, "We

won't bite,"

"I'll stay," Asuka said, "Thanks anyway,"

"Are you sure?" Jean asked.

"I'll be fine," Asuka said, wondering if she spoke the truth. When was the

last time she was 'fine' with hanging around with Ranma?

"All right," Jean gave the young girl a warm smile, "We'll see you around,"

"See y'later," Ranma waved.

"Bye" Asuka said.

Shortly after the group was gone, Asuka said, "Why do you act the way you do?"

"Huh? Whatcha mean?" he asked, a bit confused.

"You do know, the way you act, it really pisses people off," Asuka said in

annoyance, referring to Ranma's comment about the group most likely going

shopping because they were girls...even if it was true.

"So?" he responded.

"See! Like that! That's so aggravating! Argh!"

Ranma and Asuka walked down a business busy street. They had nothing planned

to do and figured they would walk around town and just see what kind of stores

the city of Salem Center had to offer. Also, not that he really cared, Ranma

knew Rogue, Storm, Psylocke, and Jean were somewhere around town, probably

buying tons of clothes this very moment.

"'Panty Personality'?" Ranma said, reading the Japanese text.

That title for an article on the front cover of some women's magazine seemed

to jump out at Ranma for his attention. The magazine was sitting on the front

magazine rack that sat outside of a book store they were about to walk across.

The Japanese writing caught his attention since he was in a foreign land.

Asuka nearly bumped into Ranma's back when he stopped suddenly, "Hey, what

gives?"

Ranma reached out and took a hold of the magazine.

"Don't tell me it's another porno," Asuka muttered.

"No," Ranma said in annoyance, "It's not a porno. And even if it was, who

cares. Why're you getting your panties up in a bunch if it is anyway, heh, not

unless you're, like, jealous of those women in those magazines or something,"

"I am not jealous!" Asuka shouted loudly, loud enough that several pedestrians

stopped to glance in her direction before resuming their business.

Ranma, extremely curious, opened the magazine and skimmed through the pages

for the article mentioned on the front cover. Asuka ducked her head down to look

up from below at the magazine cover as Ranma held it open.

"'Today's Women'," Asuka read the title of the magazine, "Is that some kind of

women's magazine you're reading?"

"Yeah," Ranma chuckled, "And I can feel my testosterone seeping right out of

me and being replaced by estrogen this very moment,"

Asuka scratched her head, "That title sounds familiar. Hey, it does, because

that's a Japanese magazine,"

"I supposed the fact that, I dunno, the magazine is written completely in

Japanese text that makes it a bit of a giveaway," Ranma chuckled.

Little did Ranma know that there was a magazine of that title back home on

their own world. The magazine seemed to exist on this world as well. Of course,

since they were currently in America, the magazine would therefore be considered

an import magazine.

"What article are you reading?" She watched him as he seemed to pay close

attention to whatever he was reading. The fact that he didn't answer indicated

that the article was really holding his attention.

After a several minutes, Ranma finished reading the magazine article. A second

later, he burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Asuka asked.

Ranma handed Asuka the open magazine, "I just read this article about how

women seemed to subconsciously wear certain kinds of panties based on their

personality. What's really funny is that, now that I think of it, it seems spot

on. All of you girl's wear the described kind of panties that corresponds to the

personalities mentioned in the magazine now that I think of it,"

"What?" Asuka's eyes widened.

"Yeah, the article mentions the color, fabric, and type of panties that women

with certain personalities tend to wear," Ranma chuckled, "For instance, the

article mentioned that someone of your personality is most likely to wear pink

cotton panties with a small red bow in the back,"

Asuka blushed a deep shade of red as she recalled putting on the kind of

panties Ranma just described.

"You pervert! You saw me get dressed!" Asuka shouted at him.

Ranma burst out laughing, "I did no such thing. However, it seems like the

article's right, given your response,"

Asuka was silent.

"Awesome, now I know what's gonna occupy my time while waiting for the auction

to start a couple of days from now," Ranma laughed in a mocked diabolical

laughter.

"What?" Asuka asked, worried about what she was going to hear.

"I'm gonna go find out if Rogue, Storm, Psylocke, and Jean wear the kinda

panties that correspond to their personalities,"

"Ranma, you pervert!"

Beast and Logan looked at one another.

"Did I hear that correctly?" Logan asked, showing signs of disbelief, an

amazing feat considering some of the things he had seen and hear over his life.

"I think so," Beast stated, "But even I don't believe it,"

Logan was in War Room listening in on Ranma's and Asuka's normal conversation

when he overheard something about Ranma going to pass his time trying to figure

out what kind of underwear the female members of the team wore. Beast, whom had

been honing his skills fighting against holographic opponent in the adjoining

room, the Danger Room, had been called in by Logan.

Ranma and Asuka had originally been monitored, in case there was some hidden

agenda to their being on their world. They found out that they were being

paranoid when they realized that he truly was there for adamantium and nothing

else. This was because, even though they were reluctant to do so, the team had

Jean telepathically read Asuka's mind without her knowing. Doing so revealed to

them that they were indeed there for exactly what they had intended, that there

was no hidden agenda on their part.

Jean didn't probe around in Asuka's mind for long because, afterall, it was an

invasion of privacy. She did manage to find out that Asuka and Ranma really came

from a different world, a world that had no mutants and that Asuka genuinely

believed Ranma possessed the power's of God. The group, although open-minded,

had a funny feeling that it was all relative.

They believed that because they were from a world that weren't used to

mutants, a person like Ranma would seem like he possessed God-like powers to a

normal human. They believed that Ranma was much like a mutant, a variation of a

mutant, a first from his own world and a frighteningly powerful one, too. The

fact that Logan, by himself, managed to come close to beating gave them an

indication that Ranma, although really powerful, had his head in the clouds.

They stopped eavesdropping on Ranma's and Asuka's conversations long ago

because they believed that there was no need to worry about them having a hidden

agenda and didn't want to invade their privacy anymore. It just so happened

Logan, not caring if it was an invasion of their privacy, and not quite as moral

as the rest of the group, had turned the transmitter back on provide himself

something to listen to while he watched Beast fight in the Danger Room.

Because of that, he had overheard the conversation of Ranma reading that

magazine article and now deciding to pass his time trying to find out how true

that article was.

"Should we tell the girls about what Ranma has planned?" Beast asked.

Logan smirked, "Let's not. I'm just curious as to how far he would get in

his...investigation...until Storm and the others catch on because they will.

That Ranma guy isn't as powerful as he believes and I wouldn't mind seeing him

being humbled by a group of angry girls after they find out what he's doing,"

"Might it be because you're curious as to what color underwear Jean wears?"

Beast said with a big grin, knowing full well that Logan had feelings for Jean

even though she was married to Cyclops.

The middle claw of one of Logan's hands emerged from the back of his wrist,

giving it the look as if he was giving Beast the bird with his claws.

Beast started laughing.

Ranma didn't know Storm or Rogue well enough to know what general personality

they had. Therefore, he figured it was best to get to know each of them a bit

better before putting the article's theory to the test.

Ranma and an annoyed Asuka, entered the Xavier grounds shortly after noontime.

Even though it was already afternoon, the group hadn't gotten back from their

outing together.

"Don't go telling them and spoiling my plan for fun or nothing," Ranma

mentioned to Asuka, "Keep in mind we're on this world to get adamantium. Why? To

get the necessary material to build an engine for a car that will be given to

you afterwards. At least let me have this bit of fun while I'm here to pass the

time until the auction starts. Keep in mind I'm just doing this in pure harmless

fun,"

"What do you plan on doing?" Asuka asked, still annoyed.

"I don't know," Ranma shrugged, "I'll probably sneak into their bedrooms when

they're not around to check. What they don't know can't hurt them,"

"That's an invasion of privacy," Asuka countered, "Why don't you just ask them

if you really need to satisfy that sick twisted curiosity of yours,"

Ranma shrugged, "Okay, fine, I'll give that approach,"

"W-wait, you're actually going to just flat out ask?" Asuka was shocked at

Ranma's audacity.

"Yeah," Ranma nodded, "I'll just walk right up to 'em and say something like

'Hey, I'm curious, what kind of panties do you wear and what color are they?'

Think they won't like me asking that?"

"You think?" Asuka said sarcastically, feeling a headache coming.

Figuring it was best to just leave Ranma be, Asuka said, "Go do whatever you

want. It's not like I can stop you anyway,"

"Y'gotta point there," Ranma grinned.

At that moment, four familiar females could be seen approaching the school.

"Hey, looks like they're back," Asuka said, noticing that each female carried

at least one bag.

"Hey, girls, what's up?" Ranma greeted them.

"Sugah, I reckon ya stop calling us 'girls'," Rogue said, suddenly a bit

angry.

"Sorry," Ranma bonked his head, giving a bit of a smile, "Forgot,"

"How was shopping?" he asked to all of them at once, "You all looked like you

had fun. I guess being part of X-Men's hard work and everyone deserves some time

off from time to time, huh?"

All four females was a bit surprised at Ranma's genuine comment.

"Why yes, you're right," Jean said, "It really is nice to have some time off,"

Ranma smiled, "I know whatcha mean. Must be hard being super-heroes, to do the

things you do, yet not many people even acknowledge it, like they take you guys

for granted,"

Storm and Rogue, whom been exposed the least to Ranma from the group, found

themselves a bit embarrassed of having misjudged him. He was very down-to-earth

and seemed to know where the X-Men were coming from. It was as if he really

could put himself in their shoes.

Asuka took a small step back to watch Ranma. She was a bit confused. Rogue,

Storm, Psylocke, and Jean were four very beautiful women and must be very

intimidating to approach alone, let alone as a group. Ranma, on the other hand,

seemed completely at ease, talking to them as if he knew them for a long time.

She also noticed that Ranma seemed to ask the right questions, keeping them

open-ended where people would feel almost obligated or excited to answer.

"You girls buy anything interesting?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing too interesting," Jean seemed to speak for the entire group, "Just a

few outfits,"

"What about underwear?" Ranma grinned.

All the females gave Ranma an odd look. For a moment, all of them had believed

Ranma was genuinely interested in what they had to show, only to realize that he

was nothing more than some pervert.

"What, I was just curious," Ranma pretended innocence.

The group seemed to indicate their distaste for Ranma's interest in the one

article of clothing they each bought that they definitely have no intention of

revealing to him. Oddly enough, none of them really knew how to react to such a

question and decided to avoid the subject and excuse themselves.

Asuka had a big smile on her lips after the four females disappeared into the

school.

"Hey, so what, my attempt backfired," Ranma didn't seem perturbed, "But that

doesn't mean I'm gonna give up. Heck, I'm actually grateful. It'd be a shame if

I found out already since it would mean I'd hafta think of something else to

pass the time until the auction,"

Asuka let out an annoyed breath, "You're such a sicko, Ranma,"

Ranma scratched his head, "You know what's weird?"

"What?" she asked.

"Unlike Misato and the others back home, Jean and the others here look like

they've never dealt with someone like me before," he said, "I notice that rather

than get all mad and such, they just change avoid the subject and usually

leave,"

"So? What's so wrong with that?" Asuka said, "It's not like it's common that

people deal with super-perverts like you,"

"Damn, I'm starting to have regrets of bringing you along," Ranma said, his

voice serious, "If I knew you were going to just dog me on everything I did, I

wouldn'tve brought you along in the first place,"

That seemed to shut Asuka up in an instant.

Ranma noticed that he seemed to have struck a nerve and immediately felt bad

that he said that.

He said, "I didn't mean it to come out like that. Look, I like your company.

Really, I do. It's just that I'd prefer if you not criticize everything I do.

Can you do that?"

"Well, I guess I can try," she said. Perhaps she had been dogging him more

than usual ever since she and he got here. She was pretty sure that it would

only be a matter of time before he got fed up with her bickering and just sent

her home so that he could carry out his task by himself unhindered.

"Thanks,"

Ranma entered the War Room just as Logan was finishing up with an intense

battle situation in the Danger Room. In the room was Beast. Asuka wasn't with

Ranma, having taken Ranma's suggestion and just leaving him be to do things on

his own without her looking over him.

"Hey, Beast," Ranma greeted the large furry mutant, "How's everything going?"

"Fine, Ranma," Beast said, "And you?"

"Couldn't be better," Ranma said, "Whatcha up to?"

"Just waiting for Logan to finish up so I could have a go in the Danger Room,"

Beast said.

"Why don't you two go at it together instead of taking turns?" Ranma asked.

Beast said, "We do from time to time. It's just that I wrote this battle

program myself and want to give it a go myself,"

"Gotcha," Ranma said.

"Where's your friend, Asuka?" Beast asked, noticing that Ranma was alone.

Ranma said, "Oh, she's back in the guestroom. Psylocke gave me a tour of the

place last night and I found out this school's got a library. The two of us

visited the library where she took out a book to read. She's back in the

guestroom now reading that book,"

"That's good to hear," Beast said, "What book? If she likes it, I can give her

recommendations on similar books from the library to read that should interest

her. I've read every book in the library,"

Ranma said, "Can't remember the title. She said it was the first book to a

trilogy. Oh yeah, 'Dawning of Immortality', that's the name,"

"Ah, great choice. That's an excellent book," Beast said, "It's one of my

favorites. It makes you think about immortality and the pros and cons about it,"

"Been there done that," Ranma didn't seem all that impressed, "What's funny is

that I recall that series actually. I never read it, mind you. It's just that

that series exists on my world and I remember Shinji, a friend of mine, mention

it was made into a movie,"

"That series was made into a movie on your world?" Beast said, "Wow. That's

very interesting. Psylocke'll probably follow you back to your world if she knew

that,"

Ranma asked, "Huh? How come?"

"She likes the 'Immortal' series more than I do," Beast replied, "I remember

her mentioning how she would love to see a movie adaptation of it. She'd

probably go as far as to go with you to your world just to see the movie,"

Ranma smirked, "That's interesting. I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll mention

that to her,"

Logan entered the room, toweling himself off.

"Here's the beer I owe you, Logan," Ranma said, placing the six-pack on a

table.

Logan gave Ranma a big grin as he took one can and opened it up, downing it in

a few seconds before moving onto the second can. Ranma watched in amazement as

Logan went about downing the six-pack of beer in under a minute.

"You some kinda alcoholic or something?" Ranma asked, "Your liver must be all

fucked up,"

Logan said, "No, it isn't. That's one of the benefits of having super-fast

healing. Whatever damage I do do to my liver is usually repaired within

seconds,"

"Super-fast healing? That's your mutant ability?" Ranma asked, "Oh, that'll

probably explain how you managed to get up after I was sure I knocked you out. I

did knock you out, but your mutant ability made you get back up shortly after,

where normal person would've been out cold for a while,"

Logan smirked, admiring Ranma's keen sense of perception. He would make an

excellent detective based on very little information.

Ranma grinned, "Well, it seems like I really did underestimate you. However,

since I basically lost that match, you need to give me the chance to even the

score,"

"Bring it on," Logan said eagerly, his weariness from sparring against the

computer program already forgotten. Logan had dealt with and overcome lots of

powerful opponents over the course of his life, opponents more powerful than

him. Ranma would be no different, "What's the wager?"

"You win, I'll get you a keg of beer," Ranma said, figuring that would appeal

to him considering how much Logan seemed to have enjoyed downing that six-pack.

"And if you win?" Logan asked.

"You join me in a, shall I say, little adventure," Ranma said, "Your mutant

abilities will definitely come in handy,"

Logan gave Ranma a curious look, "An adventure? Like what?"

"You'll find out afterwards," Ranma said, "So, do we have a deal?"

Logan thought about it for a moment.

"Sounds rather interesting," Beast commented, wondering what it was.

"If you feel chickenshit about it, don't accept," Ranma taunted Logan.

"All right, I'll bite," Logan said, his curiosity piqued, "You have a deal,"

Logan was confident of himself and knew that whatever he had to deal with, he

would be more than up to the task, provided he lost in a match against Ranma. Of

course, he had no intention of losing. Afterall, the thought of having a keg of

beer readily available was very appealing to someone like Logan.

Ranma turned toward Beast, "How about you? Care to take part in the wager?

It'll be two against one,"

"I dunno," Beast said, a bit doubtful.

"C'mon, you just told me you were waiting to have a go in the Danger Room,"

Ranma stated, "I'm pretty sure a real-life opponent is much better than some

computer holographically-projected one,"

"Actually-" Beast began to retort.

"Y'know what I mean," Ranma said dismissively, "At least this way, we could

all see how good are,"

"All right, I'll bite," Beast said, "You're on,"

"Excellent," Ranma chuckled.

Ranma stood between Beast and Logan.

The three of them were now in the Danger Room. The holographic matrix gave the

room the illusion that there were standing in the middle of a open meadow.

"What kinda battleground is this?" Ranma chuckled, "I don't know if I should

get ready to start fighting or start picking flowers,"

"This is the best setting," Beast said, "It's all open area so it's pure hand-

to-hand combat. There's no where to run or hide,"

"So, what're the rules for this match?" Ranma asked.

"It's simple," Logan said, "Until the person says he gives up or is knocked

unconscious or too hurt to continue fighting, anything goes. No killing of

course,"

"Of course," Ranma chuckled.

"All right, let's see whatcha got, bub," Logan grinned.

"Okie dokie," Ranma laughed.

Logan and Beast both dashed forward, working together as team to execute a

pincer attack on Ranma.

Ranma stood perfectly still. Right when they were close enough for him to grab

them, Ranma reached out and grabbed them both by the neck, his speed surprising

the both of them.

Lifting them both off the ground, Ranma brought them both down violently

toward the ground, slamming them down with enough controlled force that both of

them were knocked out.

Grinning like an idiot, Ranma stood over Logan and patiently waited for Logan

to come back to consciousness. After around sixty silent seconds, Logan's eyes

opened as he found himself looking up at Ranma.

"Give up?" Ranma asked.

"You're going to have to do a lot more than that to stop me," Logan said,

taking a swipe at Ranma with his claws, missing him by inches.

Ranma continued to grin.

"I was hoping you were gonna say that,"

Logan yawned as he woke up.

"Where the hell am I?" he wondered.

He didn't remember going to sleep so why was he waking up?

After a short moment, he came to realize he was looking up at the dull gray

ceiling of the Danger Room after the holographic background program had been

turned off. He quickly sat upright, wondering how he had got there.

"Have a nice sleep?" came a voice.

Logan quickly hopped to his feet, claws extended, zoning in on where the voice

had come from. It was Ranma as he sat in the corner of the room, his back

resting against the wall. It looked as if he had been waiting for someone.

"What happened?" Logan asked, confused and disoriented.

Glancing down by his feet, he noticed Beast unconscious.

"What the," Logan said.

"Don't worry, he's just sleeping, like what you were doing," Ranma chuckled,

"You have any idea how long you were out?"

"What happened?" Logan asked.

"I pushed your and Beast's sleep pressure point," Ranma answered, "You two've

been asleep for over an hour. I could've made it where you slept for a shorter

period of time, but I wanted to let you realize that a lot of time had elapsed

to remove any doubt in your mind about who won this fight,"

"You're joking, right?" Logan refuse to believe that.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. I'm not joking. Go check the clocks. You remember

when we started our fight. Check out what time it is now and you'll realize just

how long you were out. If you think you need to be unconscious for more than an

hour for the winner of a battle to be decided, then I can put you right back to

sleep for longer. Of course, I figure you don't want that since you'd probably

rather spend your time doing other things besides just lying in the middle of

the room unconscious,"

"When did you knock me out?" Logan had to ask.

"Over an hour ago," Ranma said, "You don't remember because you didn't see it.

I moved too fast for you to have even known what had happened,"

"Seems like I underestimated you this time around," Logan commented.

"Yep," Ranma said.

"All right, fine, it seems like you've won this match," Logan reluctantly

conceded.

"Yep, and that means I win the bet," Ranma said, "You and Beast will be

helping me out with a little adventure,"

"And what 'adventure' is that?" Logan asked.

"You're going to be helping me find out what kind of panties Rogue, Storm,

Jean, and Psylocke wear," Ranma said.

"W-what?" Logan's eyes widened in shock.

"Don't act surprised," Ranma said, "I know you know what I'm up to. I know the

X-Men have been eavesdropping on the conversation between me and Asuka. I also

know that Storm, Rogue, Psylocke, and Jean weren't around to hear what I was

saying when I mentioned that little plot of mine to see if the article I read is

true since I knew they were out shopping. I've been aware of there being a

transmitter on that translator device Asuka and I wear,"

Logan found himself rather shocked that Ranma had known all along.

"Since you lost the bet, you and Beast'll be helping me out," Ranma said.

"What do you expect us to do?" Logan asked, knowing he would help out simply

because he will have to honor his agreement.

"Nothing much," Ranma said, "They're gonna find out eventually about the plan.

That way, since you and Beast will now be in cahoots with me, the load of the

anger would not be centered on me completely had I been alone. It'll be spread

out between you and me and Beast,"

For some odd reason, Logan's mutant abilities didn't seem to work at the

moment because he felt a headache coming up.

"I've been through stuff like this before," Ranma chuckled, "The girls ARE

going to find out. I made the wager so the two of you would be on my team. Beast

can keep lookout while I carry out the task of actually doing the

investigation,"

"And just want do you intend for me to do?" Logan asked.

"You said you have super-fast healing," Ranma said, "WHEN they find out,

you'll take one for the team and let the mob get you first so we can make our

getaway. Since you have super-fast healing, it shouldn't hurt as much,"

Logan was deathly silent.

Ranma burst out laughing, "Man, this is gonna be so fun,"

Logan wondered what could possibly be fun about what Ranma had in mind.

What had he gotten himself into?

Asuka couldn't help but feel a sense of jealousy as she entered the War Room

and saw Ranma basically engaged in combat with Psylocke in the adjoining Danger

Room. He wasn't actually fighting her. Instead, he was providing her an evasive

opponent as she tried to land a single blow on him.

"Man, Psylocke's been at it for the past half-hour and she is no closer to

hitting him than before," Asuka heard Beast's comment. Beast and Logan had been

in the War Room observing.

"Ah, Asuka," Beast greeted the young girl when he noticed her, "How're you

doing?"

"I'm fine," she answered. She was surprised that she wasn't all that nervous

around Beast. Beast looked less human than Nightcrawler did. She knew why she

wasn't nervous now. It was because Nightcrawler showed her that she should not

judge a book by its cover. When she found out that Nightcrawler was a priest, it

made her embarrassed to had pre-judged him based on his appearance. Nightcrawler

had mentioned that Beast was basically a highly intellectual scientist.

"Are you enjoying your book?" Beast asked.

"My book?" she asked.

"Yes, 'Dawning of Immortality', right?" Beast said, "Ranma mentioned it to me.

How far along are you?"

"Oh, that book," she said, "I'm only about a quarter way in. I figured I'd

stop to take a break and check up and see what Ranma was doing,"

Beast laughed, "I'm surprised you managed to put that book down. When I

started reading it, I couldn't stop until I finished the whole book,"

"I read that book before a while ago," Asuka said, "Did you like it?"

"Yes," Beast nodded, "The trilogy is probably one of my favorite set of books

in the entire library, and I've read every book in there at least once,"

"You read every book in the library?" Asuka's eyes were wide with shock,

"There must to tens of thousands of books in there,"

"What can I say, I like to read," Beast said.

Asuka was silent for a moment. She felt angry at herself for having misjudged

him initially when she saw him for the first time. She had been initially scared

of him because of his appearance. Now that she had a chance to talk to him, she

realize that he was a very nice and easy person to talk to.

"If you like that series, you might like 'Just Won't Die'," Beast commented.

"'Just Won't Die'?" Asuka asked.

"It's a pretty good series," Beast said, "Extremely intimidating to the casual

reader because it's very large. Most people won't even give it a try simply

because of the size of that series. For the people that do, they're usually glad

it's so large when they realize they like what they're reading and that there's

so much more to it left to read,"

"You wouldn't happen to have wrote that series, would you?" Asuka asked,

smirking.

"Me? No, why do you ask?" Beast asked.

"I don't know," Asuka shrugged, "It sounded like you were plugging that

series, as if you wrote it, that's all,"

Beast chuckled, "No, I didn't write it. I'm not crazy,"

"I'll give that series a try after I'm done with the other books, thanks,"

Asuka said. She had no real idea how long she was going to be here, but if she

had the time, she would definitely give that series a try.

Asuka gazed toward through the window and into the Danger Room.

"Have they been sparring long?" she asked.

"Not too long, kid," Logan said, "About a half-hour. All he does is dodge.

It's not much of a sparring match if you ask me,"

"I think I'll join in in a bit," Logan said, "Figure I'll help out to even

things up. It's downright frustrating watching her basically being toyed with,"

Asuka observed Psylocke as she continued to try and hit Ranma, much to no

avail.

"Against Ranma, Psylocke's probably got the best chance of hitting him in a

real fight out of the three of you," Asuka said aloud. She had no idea how Logan

fought and managed to hit Ranma as he mentioned, but she was pretty sure it was

a fluke.

"What makes you say that?" Beast asked curiously. Did Asuka notice something

to Psylocke's fighting style that neither Logan or Beast could see?

"Ranma's got a weakspot," Asuka answered, "A really stupid weakspot, but a

weakspot nonetheless,"

"Interesting," Beast said, contemplating on asking on what it was.

"He goes infinitely easier on girls," Asuka stated.

Beast and Logan turned toward Asuka like she had grown a second head, "Huh?"

"Because she's female, he goes a lot easier on her," Asuka said, "It's been

proven back home,"

"What makes you say that, kid, that he goes easier?" Logan asked.

"I spar against him from time to time," she said, "Every here and there, I can

land a blow on him," She gritted her teeth, "Shinji, a guy I know that's now

knows a significantly more martial arts than myself, has yet to genuinely hit

Ranma in all the years they've been sparring,"

"You can hit him, kid?" Logan had this really surprised look on his face. The

logic behind it meant that if Asuka could hit Ranma where Psylocke could not, it

meant Asuka was the better martial artist. Asuka is completely human and had no

special powers. Psylocke had powers which should give her the edge. How was it

possible that Asuka could hit Ranma?

Asuka gave a shy smile, "Every here and there. I don't spar against him much

though,"

"How come?" Logan asked, "I must admit, Ranma's a very good fighter. You

should take advantage of that. It can help you become a better martial artist,

to spar against stronger opponents,"

"He always asks if I want to spar against him," she said, "But I usually

decline. It always ruins my day losing to him,"

Logan scratched his chin, "He asks to spar against you, huh, kid? That's

pretty surprising because he seems to have no interest in sparring against us

even though we constantly ask him,"

Asuka was surprised at what she heard, "Really? I figure he'd be the one to

ask you,"

"Nope," Logan shook his head, "Quite the opposite,"

Asuka wondered what the meaning of that could mean. Could it be that he prefer

sparring against her but not with others? Could she be looking a gift horse in

the mouth and not even realize it?

"So, what's Ranma's weakness?" Beast asked, curiosity getting the better of

him.

"That's it, he goes easy on females," Asuka said, "That's his weakness. I

think it's a subconscious thing. He's also susceptible to certain kinds of

strikes,"

"Like what kind of attacks?" Beast wondered. He noticed that Ranma seemed very

guarded when in a fighting stance and looked ready for anything.

"Slaps," Asuka said, "If you say something like 'Eek, pervert!' while you try

and slap him, it usually works. You can't use it that often though but it still

catches him off-guard if you use that trick sparingly,"

Logan and Beast looked at one another, more confused than ever before.

Asuka shrugged, "It's a tried and true method. It works. If Psylocke did that

right this moment, without Ranma being aware of what she was going to do, I'm

sure it'll work,"

"But that's-" Beast began.

"Crazy?" Asuka said, "You're telling me,"

Beast and Logan looked at one another. Ranma mentioned that it was inevitable

that the girls find out about Ranma's plan to find out if their preference for

underwear fit their personality. They had the funny feeling they would be

hearing those words first hand and be feeling the wrath of their anger which

would be accompanying it.

"Ranma believes that there's some special property with that kind of attack,"

Asuka commented, "He believes it only works when a girl does that. He thinks

that when a girl says the word 'pervert', it makes the properties of her slap

super-humanly strong no matter how weak the girl may be,"

"That sounds like it hurts," Beast commented, really worried at just how

serious Asuka said that. What Asuka said was ridiculous, completely

unbelievable. However, because she said it so seriously, as if she was saying it

matter-of-factly, it made him wonder if there were any truth to her words.

"Ranma says that it hurts like hell," Asuka said, "Keep in mind Ranma's got an

AT Field too. An AT Field is a protective barrier with divine properties. This

is the kinda barrier Urd would use to protect herself from something, and she's

God,"

Logan and Beast gulped. Why the hell did they make that wager?

They were doomed.

Asuka looked up from her book when she heard Ranma enter the room. She had

been sitting on a couch in the corner of the guestroom when the suddenly sound

of Ranma entering startled her.

"Hey, don't you ever bother to knock before entering?" Asuka asked.

"Why?" Ranma asked, "We're both in the same room,"

"What if I was changing?" Asuka asked, annoyed.

Ranma said, "So? It's not like I'll see something I haven't seen before. I've

seen you naked countless times,"

"Ranma!" Asuka said, blushing a deep shade of red. Sure, what Ranma was saying

was true, but it still made her self-conscious.

"Enjoying your book?" Ranma asked, approaching her and leaning over her to

look at what page she was on.

Ranma's closeness made Asuka become even more self-conscious of herself. It

also made the guestroom seem suddenly smaller.

"Wow, you read real fast," Ranma said, "I was only gone around two hours and

you're already more than a halfway through with the book,"

"I like the book," she stated.

Ranma regarded her fondly.

"W-what?" she blushed under his gaze.

"Well, it just dawned on me that the book's in English," he said, "I never

knew you knew how to read English,"

Asuka said, "Yes, I can read English. Not as fast as German or Japanese

though, but fast enough. If the book was in German, I'd already be finished with

it and had started the second book to the trilogy already,"

"I saw you in the War Room earlier, while I was in the other room with

Psylocke," he said, "How come you didn't hang around and say hi?"

Asuka was silent for a moment before she said, "Well, you seemed so caught up

sparring against Psylocke that I figured I didn't want to be a bother,"

"Oh," he said, "Well, I wouldn'tve minded. Actually, I probably would've liked

it if you interrupted. I can't even recall how the heck I got duped into

sparring in the first place. It didn't help any when Logan and Beast suddenly

get this notion that the two of them joining Psylocke and teaming up against me

would be a good match up,"

Asuka had a good idea of what the outcome was but had to ask, "What happened?"

"They should be waking up from the sleep pressure point around now," Ranma

said, "I only made it so they'll be asleep for a short while,"

Asuka giggled. Knowing Ranma, he probably took the liberty to make Logan and

Beast look as if they slept while sucking their thumbs. She stopped laughing as

she wondered if Ranma did something to Psylocke, like cop a feel just for the

heck of it. She dismissed the thought because Ranma wasn't that kind of person.

Was he?

Ranma regarded Asuka for a moment, "What?"

"Oh, nothing," she said.

"Ah, you think I did something to Psylocke, huh?" Ranma pointed, "You've got a

sick mind,"

"I was thinking no such thing!" Asuka retorted.

Ranma started laughing, "Silly girl. If it makes you feel any better, no, I

did no such thing. I left everyone right where they fell asleep,"

"Oh," she said, feeling rather relieved.

Ranma sat down on the empty section of the couch next to Asuka. When he sat

down, Asuka suddenly noticed this odd smell.

"What's that smell?" she asked.

"What smell?" he asked.

Asuka sniffed Ranma and noticed he smelled rather foul, "Ew, when was the last

time you took a shower?"

"I dunno," Ranma said, "A few days ago, I think. Before we got here,"

Asuka quickly got up off the couch, "Oh gross! Shinji doesn't shower daily.

And neither does Ryoga. What the heck's with guys not taking daily showers?

That's just gross. Is it so hard to spend ten minutes a day to take a shower?"

Ranma sniffed himself, "I don't smell anything,"

"That's because people tend not to smell their own stank," Asuka pinched her

nose, "Jeez, how come Logan didn't say anything? Doesn't he have some heightened

senses or something?"

"He does?" Ranma said, "How do you know?"

"Logan mentioned it," Asuka said, "I was talking to him and Beast for a short

bit when I was down in the War Room, before I came back up here,"

"Ah," Ranma said, "Maybe he's scared of making me angry out of fear that I'll

beat the shit outta him,"

Asuka said, "I highly doubt it,"

"Yeah, I guess you have a point," Ranma said.

Asuka walked over to Ranma's backpack and fetched him a pair of clothes. She

threw him a clean pair of clothes and a towel.

"Go take a shower," Asuka commanded him.

Ranma got up to his feet, "I guess I should, huh? Where's the showers?"

Asuka jerked a thumb toward the door, "It's down the hallway. Just head out

the door and hang a left. It's, like, the fifth or sixth door down the hallway

on your right,"

"Okay," Ranma headed for the door.

"In case you don't know the English spelling, it's the door that has the

letters 'M-E-N' on it," Asuka said.

"Thanks," Ranma smiled.

"And use some soap. I heard guys consider a shower standing in front of the

water. That's not a shower. That's just standing in front of water. A shower is

where you at least use soap," Asuka said.

"Yeah yeah," Ranma said, "I hear ya,"

Ranma walked down the hallway and stopped in front of the fifth door.

He read the letters on the door.

"'W-O...Ah, M-E-N," he said, scratching his head, wondering what the W-O in

front was for. He didn't really think much about it and walked through the door.

Ranma looked around and noticed the locker room was empty. To either side of

the door were lockers that stretched forward all the way to the back of the

room. There was a bench that was between the two row of lockers. In the back of

the room was a door the lead to the shower area.

He took off his dirty clothes and the headset device and placed them on the

bench and walked stark naked across the rest of the locker room and into the

shower area. Since he lived in Japan and was used to bathhouses which were

basically communal bath areas, Ranma felt completely at ease being naked.

Walking into the shower area Ranma noticed that there was a open shower area,

like those usually found at pool areas, as well as individual shower stalls.

Ranma showered in the open area. He even used some soap. He even washed his

hair. Of course, he used soap to wash his hair instead of shampoo since he

didn't have any shampoo to begin with. Then again, even if he did have access to

shampoo, he probably would use soap anyway.

As he washed his hair, he decided to let his hair down and remove the string

that usually tied his long hair into that of a pig-tail.

He wondered if he should cut his hair. After a short moment, he decided

against it.

"Heh, my pig-tail's one of my trademarks," Ranma laughed at himself, "It's one

of the things that makes Ranma Ranma,"

Finished with his shower, he decided against putting his hair back up into a

pig-tail. He would let it hang low for the night so it could dry quicker.

Heading off into the locker area, he grabbed his towel from the bench and went

about drying his hair.

At that moment, the door opened and in entered Rogue and Storm, both of them

indulging in conversation, unaware of Ranma's presence until he said something.

"Oh shit," Ranma muttered, realizing that a world of misunderstanding was

going to occur, "Before you guys jump to conclusion, hear me out,"

He had been in situations like this plenty of times and knew that the outcome

was usually the same, that he would end up on the receiving end of a severe

beatdown by one or more enraged females.

Because Ranma didn't have the headset device on, none of his words were being

automatically translated so it sounded like gibberish to them.

"What the?" Rogue noticed the stranger in the women's locker room. It only

took a second for her to notice that that stranger was obviously male.

Caught completely off guard, both Storm and Rogue let out a loud yelp of

surprise. They didn't recognize who the person was or what language he was

speaking.

Because his hair wasn't tied into a pig-tail, he looked like a completely

different person.

Ranma quickly reached for the headset device in hopes of getting his words

across to the two girls not to jump to conclusions.

"He's reaching for something!" Storm pointed.

"Not if I've got something to do about it!" Rogue leapt forward, flying

straight toward Ranma.

Ranma reacted instinctively. Just as Rogue was about to punch him, he reached

out and seized her extended arm, and sidestepped toward the side and around

Rogue, ending up behind her, her arm seized an awkward position behind her.

Feeling one arms seized behind her back, she used her free arm in an attempt

to fling a devastating elbow backwards to hit Ranma's head. To her surprised,

her opponent's grabbed her the forearm of her second arm and twisted it ever-so-

slightly and bringing it also back behind her back.

She shouted as she suddenly felt her opponent's manhood pressed against her

backside, even if it was completely accidental.

"You pervert!" Rogue struggled, managing to free one of her arms and swinging

it backwards and hitting her opponent hard in the side of his head. She ended up

hitting him so hard that he staggered slightly and ended up slamming his side

into one of the lockers. However, he kept his cool and again seized Rogue's now

free arm.

Rogue's eyes widened as she realized both her arms were held fast behind her.

When she realized she had super-human strength and can simply overpower the guy,

she tried to struggle free. To her second surprise, her arms remained pinned

behind her.

"Rogue!" Storm shouted, dashing forward to help her friend.

Storm tried to punch at the man's head but missed. Before she knew what

happened, she ended up tripping over the man's foot that he stuck out in front

of her and fell down to her stomach. When she felt the man's foot press down on

her back, she found herself pinned to the floor. Because the foot was pressed

down right in the middle of her back, she couldn't reach back with either arm to

grab his leg.

"Ah dunno who you are, but you're in fer a world of hurt," Rogue said.

Ranma, not knowing what the woman said, assumed she was cursing at him. He

glanced toward the headset device. Both his arms and one of his legs were in

use. He was he going to be able to put it on without any of two girls getting

free.

"Waitaminute," Ranma realized, "It's not like you two can actually physically

hurt me so what the heck do I care about keeping you from hitting me,"

He let go of Rogue and gave her a gentle shove just hard enough that it made

her stagger forward trying to keep her balance. He quickly walked over to the

device and placed it on his head.

"Rogue, Storm, it's me, Ran-" Ranma began to say, turning around to face the

two girls.

Ranma ended up getting punched right in the face, his head cock backwards from

the devastating impact, caught off-guard at how fast Rogue had recovered and

turned around and charged him.

"Do you mind?" Ranma said.

At that moment, the device broke into pieces. It turned out that the device

took the brunt of the force of Rogue's punch. It's destruction resulting it

destroying Ranma's only chance at stopping the misunderstanding.

Ranma sighed.

"How come I'm not surprised something like that would happen?"

new stuff 7/12

Ranma, naked, carried Storm and Rogue under each arm.

"Let us go!" Rogue couldn't believe she was saying. Her arms, much like

Storm's, were bound to her side as she tried to struggle to free herself. They

were both being held in a way so that their back was pressed against Ranma's

sides, looking outward toward the walls of the hallway as Ranma's walked down

there.

Flight seemed to fail both of them because something seemed to be preventing

it but they don't know why. Could it be because their captor had a special power

that made him overcome the lifting force of that Storm and Rogue could generate?

"Ranma desu," Ranma said, his speech not translated "Watashi wa Ranma,"

Cyclops, whom had been in the hallway a few minutes ago, had heard a yelp and

wanted to investigate. To his surprise, he was shocked to see some naked man

basically man-handling Storm and Rogue, whom he had just greeted a moment ago

when he walked past them in the hallway.

Not recognizing who the person was, Cyclops assumed he was trying to kidnap

two of his friends. This surprised him because it actually looked like both

Storm and Rogue was having a hard time against this person, what with the fact

that they seemed completely helpless tucked under each of his arms.

Cyclops, wanting to find out what was going on, pressed a small button on the

side of his optic visor and let loose a beam of red energy, intent on hitting

the man in the chest and stunning him or perhaps knocking him unconscious.

At that moment, Ranma glanced down the hallway just as he saw a ray of red

light shooting straight toward him.

The blast struck him straight in the chest. To Cyclops surprised, he saw a red

barrier form right in front of the guy's chest, deflecting it and sending the

optic beam shooting down the hallway where it struck a door that led to one of

the dormitory doors.

Ranma, still holding Storm and Rogue, turned around and looked down the

hallway where he saw a hole in the middle of the door it struck. This annoyed

Ranma because it made him realize that something like that would really hurt if

it weren't for his AT Field.

"Yeah, jump to conclusions why dontcha?" Ranma muttered in his native

language, "Fine, have it your way,"

He executed a spin kick, kicking the doorknob on the locker room door right

next to him. He kicked it in a way that it sent the knob straight at Cyclops.

Cyclops seemed to have reacted quick enough to actually send out another optic

blast and incinerate the flying object before it hit him.

"Hm, not bad," Ranma was impressed.

He crossed the hallway and kicked another door knob at Cyclops. This time, the

knob hit its mark, hitting Cyclops right in the stomach, the force of the impact

causing him to keel over in pain.

Ranma took that opportunity to make a break for it, dropping Storm and Rogue

to the floor and sprinting toward the door a few doors down the hallway behind

Cyclops, the door that led to the guestroom where he was staying.

He took the opportunity to hit Cyclop's sleep pressure point, sending him into

a deep slumber before the man had a chance to recover from being struck.

"Have a nice nap," Ranma chuckled before running down the hallway.

He quickly running down the hallway and quickly ran into his room.

Inside the room, Asuka looked up from her book.

"Eeek!" Asuka shouted when she caught sight of the naked man.

"It's me, Ranma!" Ranma said.

"R-Ranma?" Asuka asked, barely recognizing him.

Ranma's hair wasn't done up in a pig-tail like it usually was. Because Ranma

always sported that look, he looked like a completely different person when his

hair was let down.

"Y-y-you're naked!" Asuka quickly turned her gaze away, knowing that she not

going to be sleeping well anytime soon. Sometimes, when she saw him shirtless,

and it made her have trouble sleeping. Now she was seeing him completely naked.

Ranma ignored the comment as he quickly ran over toward Asuka.

"W-w-w-what are you doing?" she stammered, scooting back on the couch, "I-I'm

not ready for this!"

Ranma reached out and grabbed a hold of headset device resting on the end of

the couch, Asuka having removed it since she didn't really need it for reading.

"What the heck are you talking about?" Ranma said.

Realizing he didn't have much time, he quickly placed the device on.

A second later, Rogue and Storm, realizing the stranger ran into the room

where Asuka was staying, burst in through the door, concerned for her safety.

They caught sight of the man standing right by Asuka, this shocked look on the

young woman's face.

Ranma looked down at himself and realized that he was still naked. He suddenly

realized that, even if he was now wearing the headset device which would allow

him to communicate with the two of them, they would still jump to conclusion.

Afterall, he was completely naked.

Realizing that he wasn't going to get out of this situation through diplomatic

means, he figured he might as well get his fun. Since he was in trouble, he

might as well go down in flaming glory. That was one of his mottos.

"Just bring it," Ranma grinned, "Do your worst,"

Asuka looked at Ranma like he had gone crazy.

Storm and Rogue looked at one another confused. It just so happened that that

brief moment of time of confusion made them stop what they had intended to do to

try and figure things out.

"Why are you naked and why were you in the women's locker room?" Rogue asked,

figuring she should give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Women's locker room?" Asuka's eyes widened toward Ranma, "You pervert!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Ranma asked, pointing, "They walking in

on me. They're the perverts,"

"Us?" Storm pointed to herself, "How so?"

"I went into the one that had the spelling, 'M-E-N', on the door, just like

you said," Ranma said. After a moment of thought, he realized something, "Oh, I

get it. You spelled out the wording for the women's locker room.

"I did not," Asuka said, "What the heck were you doing in there?"

"Jeez, you don't even gimme the benefit of the doubt, huh?" Ranma asked, "They

come in and say that they found me in the women's locker room and you

automatically believe 'em, even though I told 'em I was not,"

Asuka asked, "Um, are you sure it was spelled 'M-E-N'?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I saw it written on the door,"

"Did it happen to have two letters in front of it?" she asked, "Like 'W-O'?"

Ranma said, "Yeah, it did, why?"

"You idiot, that spells 'women'," Asuka said.

"Really? Oh, I didn't know that," Ranma said, "I thought the extra letter made

it plural. You know, in case you spelled 'Man' instead of 'Men',"

Asuka shook her head, "That's not how it works,"

"Oh, so I guess I'm in the wrong," Ranma said, "It was an honest mistake,"

"That's rather lame considering English is a required course in high school,"

Asuka commented, "And you were in high school before the Nerima Massacre

occurred last I heard,"

"Gee, and how long ago was that?" Ranma asked, "I dunno, like sixty years.

What, you think I'd remember crap from that? The only thing I ever learned in

school that I still remember is to look both ways when I cross the street, and I

don't even remember to do that all the time,"

"Wait, are you telling me that we found him in the women's locker room because

he doesn't know what the English spelling for men was?" Storm asked Asuka.

Asuka gave a shy smile, "I guess so,"

"Hey, sorry if I seem stupid to you," Ranma turned toward Storm, "Keep in mind

that I'm a Japanese person in America, which is an English-speaking country. My

native language is Japanese, not English. I dunno what the English spelling of

'men' is,"

"Wow, so all of this's jus' a misunderstandin'?" Rogue said, "That's rather

surprising,"

"Yes, it's all a misunderstanding," Ranma said.

"Well, now that that's cleared up, I guess we can forgive you," Storm said.

"Forgive me? I never said I was sorry," Ranma commented, "Shouldn't they be

saying they're sorry?"

"Ranma," Asuka said.

"Fine fine," Ranma said, "I'm sorry. Thanks for not jumping to conclusions and

all,"

Rogue said, "We're all adults 'ere. It's better to try 'n talk things out

first before 'aving go around givin' beatdowns,"

"I agree," Storm said.

Ranma smiled, "Wow, I liked that motto of yours. If I knew more girls like

with your way of thinking, it would've saved me a lotta grief,"

"Ranma, sugah, you're really pushin' yerself," Rogue said, holding back her

annoyance, "How many times do we hafta mention to ya to stop referrin' to us as

'girls'?"

"Y'know what I mean," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

"Let's head out 'n check on Cyclops 'n see how he's doin'," Rogue said,

heading for the door.

"What's the deal with Cyclops?" Storm asked Ranma, "What did you do to him?"

"Oh, I put sissy boy to sleep," Ranma said, "I pressed his sleep pressure

point,"

Rogue snickered, "Sissy boy? Where'd ya come up with that pet name for 'im? Ya

must've been hangin' round with Wolvie too much cause he usually calls 'im

that,"

"Wolvie?" Ranma asked.

"Wolverine," Rogue said, "Y'know, Logan,"

"Ah, Logan," Ranma said, "Wait, Wolverine's is Logan's alias?"

Storm nodded, "What, you didn't know that? Logan's his real name, or at least

the name he goes by when he doesn't want people referring him by his codename,

which is Wolverine,"

"Yes," Storm said, "We all have codenames. What, you think my real name's

actually Storm?"

"Well," Ranma began, "I dunno, everyone calls you that and I figured that was

your real name,"

Storm chuckled, "My real name's Ororo. Storm's simply my codename,"

"Your real name's Ororo? That's a cool name," he said.

"Thanks," Storm said.

"It reminds me of someone," Ranma said, thinking for a moment.

"What, you know someone with that name also?" she asked, a bit surprised. She

figured she had a completely unique name. The name definitely stood out among

the X-Men since everyone actually had rather common names.

Ranma shook his head, "No, I dunno anyone with that name. Actually, I don't

know the person either. I'm just aware of him because it's one of his quirks I

guess,"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Ranma thought for a moment, "I don't remember what his name is, but I recall

he says 'Ororo' a lot. He had these two scars on his cheek. Now what was his

name? Kenshiro? Kenshin? I dunno. I can't remember. His world looked interesting

and I might actually go visit it down the line, perhaps after I get home from

here,"

"If you don't know this guy, how do you know about him?" she asked.

"Well, during the time I was God, I was basically all-knowing for a short

while," Ranma said, "Now, I'm forgetting most of the stuff I learned when I

became all-knowing,"

The two girls looked at each other.

"And you have a real name too?" Ranma turned toward Rogue.

She shook her head, "I'm an exception. Rogue is my name. Our names usually

refer to some aspect of our powers. The name seems fitting for me because, well,

I'm kinda Rogue as people see me. Storm's name came about because she can

control the weather,"

"Ah, that kinda makes sense now that I think about it," he said, "So, how did

Logan get a name like Wolverine?"

"He got it from when used to live in the woods in Canada," Storm said, "You

should talk to him about it,"

She didn't want to accidentally tell something about Logan that Logan might

not want Ranma knowing.

"Whoa, Logan's Canadian?" Ranma grinned.

"He's originally from Canada so I guess he's Canadian, yes," Storm said.

Ranma grinned, "Oh, that's interesting,"

"What should we do with Cyclops?" Rogue wondered aloud, "What the heck

happened to him anyway?"

"I pressed his sleep pressure point," Ranma answered, "He's asleep. I didn't

hit him and knock him out or anything,"

"He's just sleeping? Can we wake him up?" Storm asked. She remembered seeing

how peaceful Cyclops looked lying in the middle of the hallway. It would look

rather odd for him to look that at peace if he had been knocked out with some

punch or kick.

Ranma shook his head, "Well, you can wake him up if you, like, burn him with

something really hot. Fire or something incredibly hot should wake him up right

away. Splashing water or shaking him won't wake him,"

"Is there an easier way?" she asked, feeling that since Cyclops is a friend

and a teammate, she was at least obligated to help him out in some way or

another.

Ranma said, "Well, I can press the pressure points to wake him up. Otherwise,

he'll probably be up in around an hour,"

"Well, you should wake him up," Storm suggested.

"Nah," Ranma grinned.

"What, you're not going to wake him up?" Storm asked.

"Let him sleep," he said.

Rogue headed for the door, "Ah'm gonna go take him down to the Med-lab,"

"No need," he said, "He's just sleeping. Just let him lie right where he is.

Either that, or take him to his bedroom, where ever it is,"

"Ah'll go carry him to his and Jean's bedroom," Rogue headed for the door.

Ranma followed her, "No need. I'll go carry him. He's heavy. Girls shouldn't

hafta carry heavy things or people,"

Rogue said, "Don't worry, Ah'm sure I can carry him, no problem. And fer the

last time, quit referring to me as 'girl',"

"Y'know what I mean," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

"We're gonna go," Storm headed for the door, "Next time, use the proper locker

room. Sure, doing it the first time around, we can understand. Doing a second

time around, we won't be so forgiving,"

"So I guess I should make sure you don't end up coming in and that it should

be someone else?" Ranma smirked.

Storm narrowed her eyes at him, finding that joke not one bit funny.

She then exited the room right behind Rogue, but not before she stopped to

give him some last minute advice.

"And put on some clothes already. You've been naked the whole time,"

After the left, Ranma went about getting dressed. He glanced toward Asuka and

noticed that she had this huge blush on her cheeks. She seemed to have forgotten

to remind him that same thing that Storm just mentioned.

"What I find so funny is that if I've been naked the whole time, I didn't see

anyone readily telling me to put on some clothes. What gives?"

Asuka woke up early the next day.

Figuring she would be waking up in the room alone, she was surprised to see

Ranma standing by the window gazing out. As much as she liked knowing Ranma was

nearby, today was not one of them.

She saw Ranma naked last night and the image is still very evident in her

mind. It also didn't help that she felt like crap because she barely had any

sleep.

"G'morning," Ranma said, still looking out the window.

"What time is it?" she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Around ten," he replied, "It's pretty early, for you I guess. Sleep well?"

"Okay, I guess," she lied. She barely had any sleep. She probably didn't fall

asleep until around four in the morning. It made her pretty sure she was going

to get really tired sometime during the afternoon.

Ranma continued to gaze out the window, making Asuka a bit curious as to what

he was so intent on watching.

"What's so interesting?" she asked, getting out of bed. Because she was in her

pajamas, she wasn't all that self-conscious of herself. Afterall, she usually

walked around the house early in the morning wearing those kind of clothes.

"Jean's outside," Ranma said, "I was just observing her,"

"J-Jean?" she asked, "How come?"

"Well, Jean teaches a class early in the morning," he said, "I talked to her

the other day. She was teaching students how to use telekinetics or television

or telekinesis or whatever you call it. It's tele-something. Oh well, it doesn't

matter. We were talked for a while,"

"Um, about what?" Asuka couldn't help but feel somewhat sad. She barely ever

saw Ranma associate with any of the X-Women, a cool term Asuka believed she came

up with to label the female members of the X-Men.

"Nothing much," he said, "I found out she's married to Cyclops,"

"Oh," Asuka said, feeling worried. Was Ranma disappointed that Jean was

married. Was he attracted to her but keeping his distance because she was taken?

Ranma said, "I wonder Jean would think if I asked her-"

"That's enough!" Asuka quickly shouted, feeling a heavy weight suddenly slam

down on her shoulders, "I-I don't need to hear it,"

"Um, okay," Ranma shrugged. After a moment, he headed for the door, "I'll be

back,"

"W-where are you going to go?" she asked.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the window, "I'm going to go talk to Jean. Her

class just ended and she's alone. If I'm gonna go talk to her, now's the best

time,"

"What, to ask her out on a date?" Asuka had to ask.

Ranma looked at Asuka oddly, "Huh?"

"To ask her out on a date," Asuka repeated herself.

"Huh? Where the heck did that come from?" Ranma asked, "Why the heck would I

do that? What the heck's wrong with you? Where do you come up with this kinda

thinking?"

"Y-you're not going to ask her out?" Asuka said, her voice sounding a bit

happier than she realized.

Ranma shook his head, "No,"

"Then what do you plan on saying to her?" Asuka asked.

"Now you wanna know? But you just said you didn't wanna hear it," Ranma said,

"Jeez, make up your mind,"

"It's just that I thought-" Asuka began, blushing in embarrassment.

"When I talked to Jean the other day, I found out she was married to Cyclops,"

he stated, "Because of what happened last night, Cyclops seems pissed at me.

Earlier this morning, while you were still asleep, Cyclops approached me and

started lecturing me about how he didn't appreciate what happened last night and

that I should apologize not only to him, but to the girls. He then went about

lecturing that there are also children that wander these halls and that, as an

adult, I need to set examples for them. First off, he attacked me first and I

reacted. Secondly, I had apologized to the girls last night, but he was out cold

so he doesn't know about it. Third, there were no children around. It pisses me

off. I can't believe he gave me a lecture, like I'm some kinda child,"

"What do you plan on doing?" she asked.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the window again, "I was thinking of going out and

talking to Jean and asking her if I could have her permission to smack her

husband around a few times,"

Asuka snickered, "R-Really?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "What the heck's with that guy? He freaking gave me a

lecture about the following rules while I'm a guest here at the school,"

"Well, there are rules to conduct, you know," Asuka stated, "And from what

happened last night, I'm sure several of them were broken. We are guests,

afterall,"

Ranma nodded, "I know we're guests. And I know there are rules. Now, given my

situation, exactly what rules was a supposed to follow?"

Asuka was silent.

"Given my rather awkward situation, the only rules I could follow, which I

followed to a T, were the rules of engagement," Ranma stated confidently.

"E-engagement? Like proposing marriage?" Asuka was confused, "What, you plan

on proposing to one of those girls or something?"

"Huh? Where the heck did marriage come from?" he said, "No, what I mean by

rules of engagement, is in rules of conflict, rules of battle,"

"Oh," Asuka felt stupid.

Ranma said, "If I ever use the word 'engagement', it's to refer to engaging an

enemy,"

"All right, I getcha," Asuka wanted Ranma to quickly move on.

"Anyway, what I did, given the situation, I did everything correctly," Ranma

said, "So you should understand why I'm angry when Cyclops told me that there

are strict rules, rules that didn't apply to me given my situation, were to be

followed,"

"What do you plan on doing?" Asuka asked, a bit concerned for Cyclops, "If you

'smack' him around a few times, you could seriously hurt him, right?"

"Not smack him around as in hit him or anything," Ranma said, "I mean smack

him around as in putting him in his place, to let him know that I'm not some guy

you wanna fuck with," Ranma said.

"Oh," Asuka said, already feeling sorry for that guy.

Ranma headed for the door.

"Are you going to come back?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah, in a short while, why?" he asked.

"Well, um, I'm kinda hungry and figure-" Asuka began saying nervously. Even

though she would be casually asking him out to get some breakfast, which they do

all the time, it still felt as if she was asking him out formally.

"Ah, ya wanna go get breakfast?" he asked, "Sure. No prob. I'll be back in a

short while, probably a little bit after you're done with your shower,"

"Okay," she smiled happily.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the table by the side of her bed. There lay the

headset device he had borrowed for a short time last night.

"Oh yeah, there's the headset device," he stated, tapping the headset on his

head, "I went and got a replacement early this morning,"

"Okay," she said.

"Well, I'll be back shortly,"

"Mornin', Jean,"

Jean, whom had taken the opportunity to take a break after teaching her class

to sit on the giant rock, was momentarily startled when Ranma tapped her on the

shoulder.

"R-Ranma, you startled me," Jean said, surprised at Ranma's stealth. What was

funny was that she was pretty sure he didn't even do that voluntarily. She

usually had a telepathic field surrounding her that alerted her whenever

something or some entered its field of effect, but it didn't seem to work with

Ranma.

Ranma said, "I wasn't being stealthy or anything. I figured you heard me

walking across the field toward you,"

"So how's everything going?" she asked, "What can I do for you?"

"Well, there's not anything you can necessarily do for me," Ranma thought,

"But I figured I'd ask you about something,"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Do you and your husband, Cyclops, get along?" he asked.

She cast him a curious look.

"Well, Scott and I are married. That should give you an idea," she said,

referring to Cyclops' real name.

"Okay," he said, "I was just asking,"

Jean suddenly wondered if Ranma was attracted to her and trying to go about

approaching her and perhaps asking her out through diplomatic means. That way,

if she said she and Cyclops weren't getting along, Ranma probably wouldn't feel

all that uncomfortable about asking a married woman out on a date. However, that

would not be the case because she and Cyclops were happily married. Sure, their

relationship did have its ups and downs, what with Cyclops general distant

behaviors, but she knew he loved her as she him.

"Is there a reason why you're asking me that?" she asked, not really wanting

to jump to conclusions and assume that it had something to do with him wanting

to ask her out.

Ranma gave a chuckle, "You wouldn't happen to mind becoming a widow or

anything, huh?"

Jean regarded Ranma for a moment before she smiled said, "You're a nice guy,

Ranma. Really. Provided you do something about your lack of tact, but that can

be fixed. However, I'm spoken for. Maybe under different circumstances, things

might be different,"

Ranma suddenly became confused. He found himself confused several times on

this world and he didn't really like it.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, scratching his head, "You lost me,"

"Um, weren't you going to ask me out?" she asked. Even though she was a

married, she had quite a bit of guys try and ask her out regardless of that fact

and had assumed Ranma was much like the others.

"No, not at all," Ranma laughed, "Whatever gave you the idea I was gonna ask

you out. You're a married woman,"

Now it was Jean's turn to be confused, "Then how come you asked me those

questions?"

"I just wanted to ask you how you and your husband got along," Ranma said, "I

figured that if you two didn't get along so well, you wouldn't mind if I, um,

smack him around a few times,"

"W-what?" Jean said, surprised, "Smack him around? Whatever for?"

Ranma shrugged, "He kinda got under my skin and I figure sooner or later,

we're gonna really butt heads. I just didn't want ya hating me or nothing after

you find out I beat your husband up,"

"Beat my husband up?" Jean smirked, "It sounds like you already believe the

outcome of the confrontation if it ever came to it. My husband shouldn't be

underestimated,"

Ranma shrugged, "Well, whatever the case, I figured I'd give ya the heads up,"

"Well, thanks, but I still don't understand," Jean said, "What do you and my

husband have against each other?"

What the heck was with guys anyway? Why do they fight with each other? Was it

some kind of testosterone thing? She noticed Logan and Beast seemed to be

secretly angry toward Ranma too, but wouldn't say what. The only clue they said

was something about 'Ranma will get them seriously hurt' Curiosity was starting

to get the better of her and she was tempted to use telepathy to figure out

exactly what it. However, she decided against it since it would be an invasion

of privacy if they didn't give her their consent.

"We don't have anything against each other, yet," Ranma said, "But I just

figured it's inevitable, that's all. I guess it's because we haven't really

bumped into each other since I got here, but after the few encounters with him

face to face, I'm very sure our, um, different personalities will clash,"

"It reminds me of Scott and Logan," Jean smiled slightly, "They don't get

along that well. They tolerate each other, but they don't really get along,"

"So, you're not worried if anything happen?" Ranma asked.

Jean said, "Well, as long as you don't go overboard and try and actually kill

each other, I have no problems with it. I've given up long ago trying to figure

out how your sex's form of bonding works. Logan and Scott've had scuffles so

many times that we've all lost count. Nowadays, they just try and avoid each

other if necessary,"

"Who usually starts it?" Ranma asked, "I assume it's Logan,"

"You guessed right," Jean nodded.

At that moment, Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke emerged from the school. Unlike

Jean, who was wearing regular casual attire, they were wearing their X-Men

outfits.

"Whoa," Ranma said, "Those skin-tight outfits sure don't leave out much to the

imagination,"

"You're serious trying our patience, Ranma," Rogue said, "Ah reckon ya best

watch yer mouth because we will only let oh so much slide before you find

yerself in a world of hurt,"

Ranma didn't seem one bit intimidated by the threat.

"Jean, we've got a mission," Storm said, "Beast was monitoring police bands

and picked up information about an old building that collapsed over on

Long Island. The professor asked that the X-Men help dig out survivors,"

"Hey, Ranma, why don't you join us?" Jean asked. She remembered Xavier had

mentioned that he believed Ranma, although a bit rough around the edges, had a

kind heart. She believed he would not hesitated to help people out.

Ranma thought about it for a moment. If all four girls were gone, that mean he

could be free to sneak into their rooms and go searching through their underwear

drawers in hopes of satisfying his curiosity on how true the article he read

earlier was.

However, this was Ranma. He was not the type of person to not help someone out

when they were in need of help. Good at heart, he knew he could never live with

himself knowing that he could have helped someone out but his choosing not to

resulted in their death.

He said, "Okay,"

Ranma entered the guest room as Asuka was getting dressed. Of course, he

happened to enter at the very moment Asuka was changing out of her pajamas and

was in nothing but her bra and panties.

"Eek!" Asuka yelped, bringing her outfit up to cover her.

Ranma said, "Red panties, huh? Seems like the article's right,"

"Ranma!" Asuka shouted at him.

Ranma sighed as he turned around to allow her the privacy to get dressed.

"I still don't understand why you hafta act all embarrassed and stuff around

me," Ranma said, "We spent quite a bit of time together on a boat heading toward

Antarctica if you remember that. I saw you naked plenty of times. It doesn't

bother me,"

"Well it bothers me," Asuka said.

"Yeah yeah," Ranma said, "I know. Just get dressed,"

After Asuka was dressed, Ranma turned around to face her, "Guess what? The X-

Men have a mission,"

"What kinda mission?" she asked curiously.

"Seems like an old building collapsed in, what was that place called, Long

Island," Ranma said, "I'm gonna go join 'em and help out,"

"You are?" Asuka asked.

"It's not as if some alien race is attacking this world and I'm asking you to

help out," Ranma said, "It's a building that collapsed. I don't wanna take an

active role in this world but do something like this is the right thing to do.

You wanna come along?"

"Um, okay," she said. Of course, being just a regular human, she couldn't help

but wonder how much help she could possibly be, especially when in accompany of

the X-Men and Ranma.

"This is gonna be fun," Ranma smiled, rubbing the top of Asuka's head, "It's

gonna be just like the good 'o days when we would team up and work together for

the greater good,"

Asuka sat nervously in her seat.

She and Ranma and three X-Men team members were seated in the cabin of the

Blackbird. Two other members were seated up in the cockpit. Cyclops was flying

the plane, Beast there as his co-pilot. Wolverine was also there with them. He

was there because he didn't want to be in back with Ranma and the females. He

had a funny feeling Ranma would say something really stupid and he would get

sucked into the argument since he noticed that Ranma tended to say chauvinistic

comments that really annoyed the female members.

Asuka looked around the cabin. It had reminded her a bit of a cabin for a

military plane, where there three seats were located on either walls of the

cabin and faced one another.

Jean, Rogue, Psylocke, and Storm were in the cabin with them. It turned out

that not all the team members would be joining them in the mission, Logan and

Nightcrawler not needed. Besides, for a mission like this, there were more than

enough members helping out. Any more would be useless.

There was an awkward silence to the cabin that Asuka didn't like. Was it

always like this when they went on a mission she wondered.

"I just noticed something, how come your team's called X-Men?" Ranma scratched

his head, "I figured it'd be called X-People or something like that. Y'know, to

be politically correct,"

The girls looked at one another. Ranma brought up a really good point. What

gives? Currently, there were an equal amount of active female members on the

team as males.

"Then again, X-Men sounds better then X-Women or X-People," Ranma commented,

"The manliness of the team's name makes it sound powerful and strong,"

"Oh my god, you did not just say that," Psylocke said in disbelief.

"Ah reckon Ranma 'ere be incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to say

somethin' like that to our faces," Rogue cracked her knuckles, "And ah think

it's more the latter than former,"

Ranma said, "C'mon, think of it. 'MANkind'. 'huMANs'. It makes our species

sound strong,"

Rogue twitched slightly. She didn't know what caused it, but she was pretty

sure she twitched from anger toward the man. This was something she never really

felt before, rage toward a person based on what that person said. She had been

hit with hellfire missiles before and didn't get as angry.

Ranma said, "And don't try and use that thing where words like 'Menstruation'

and 'Mental Anxiety' and 'Menopause' all start with 'men' either. That a lame

retort,"

"Do you, like, want us to hurt you or something?" Jean said, "I'm pretty sure

I'm speaking for females in general when I say that this stuff you're saying

really pisses us off,"

She was usually very reserved, but even she couldn't help but feel like

someone like Ranma should be beaten a few times just for good measure. This guy

suffered from foot-in-mouth syndrome.

"What?" Ranma asked innocently, "I was merely point out that little thing,

that if you live in a generally politically correct world, the team would be

called X-People,"

"Okay, but why'd you have to go and add all that other stuff, like how the

word 'men' or 'man' seem to make a word sound 'stronger'?" Storm said in a cold

voice.

Asuka glanced out the window and noticed dark clouds were starting to form

around them as the plane darted through the sky. Little did she know that they

were manifesting because of Storm's growing anger toward Ranma.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Asuka said, hoping to change the subject.

"I just noticed something," Ranma said.

"What?" she asked.

"Rogue and Storm saw me naked," he stated, narrowing his eyes toward the two

of them.

"Gee, y'think?" Asuka said sarcastically, "It kinda happens when you take a

shower in the women's locker room and get out of the shower as someone's coming

in,"

Jean smirked. Rogue and Storm had mentioned that last night.

"Rogue, Storm, because you two saw me naked, I think I should get to see you

naked," Ranma stated.

"What?" Rogue and Storm said.

"An eye for an eye," Ranma said.

"Over ma dead body you will," Rogue sneered, "Fer yer information, you were

the one in the women's locker room. If you were where you were supposed to be,

the men's locker room, none of this would've happened,"

Ranma shrugged, "Yeah, but you two still saw me naked. It's all about

principle,"

Asuka pinched at the bridge of her nose, "Ranma, can you please just not say

anything from time to time? Every time you say something, you piss someone off,"

Ranma grinned at Rogue and Storm, "You two better watch out. Y'don't know when

it'll come, but I'm gonna see you naked some time or another while I'm here,"

Rogue got up and headed for the cockpit.

"Hey, Rogue, something the matter?" Beast asked.

"Hey, Cyclops, can you do me a favor and open the hatch to the cabin? I

noticed Ranma's not strapped to seat," she said, "I'm hoping he'll get sucked

out of the cabin and fall to his death,"

"But Ranma can fly," Beast said.

"Damn," Rogue left the cabin.

Beast and Logan looked at one another. After a moment, they started laughing.

Logan said, "That guy's got balls. I don't know what he's doing back there,

but he's got to have a lot of balls to get Rogue that angry,"

"What's going on back in the cabin?" Cyclops asked curiously.

"Just keep your eye open and forward," Logan smirked, "It doesn't concern us

and I'm pretty sure you don't wanna be caught up in it,"

"Who invited him?" Cyclops said coldly.

"I was told that it was your wife, One-Eye," Logan grinned, "Seems like he and

her are getting along and she don't seem to mind having him around. Seems like

she's taking a liking to him,"

"Looks like I'm going to have to have a talk with Ranma when we land," Cyclops

said angrily.

Logan smirked. He heard from Beast about how he saw Rogue carrying an

Unconscious Cyclops last night. Rogue had told him about Ranma's and Cyclops'

brief encounter and Beast had relayed it to him.

This was going to be an interesting mission.

"Ranma!" Asuka shouted at Ranma.

Ranma was tugging at the skin-tight pants of Rogue, as if trying to pull them

off.

"C'mon, I'm gonna see you naked sooner or later," Ranma had a big grin on his

face, "Might as well show me now than later,"

"Let go!" Rogue shouted at him, trying to keep her pants on.

"Let go of her!" Jean and Storm were shouting at him, pulling at his arms.

This was quite a sight because, for some odd reason, all three females seemed

to have forgotten how powerful they were and had resulted to using physical

means in attempt of getting Ranma off her.

Even more funny was that Rogue was too busy trying to keep her pants up to

actually attempt to punch Ranma to knock him off of her.

Cyclops and Beast and Logan entered the cabin and got quite an eyeful, that

being a good view of the back of Rogue's underwear.

"Hey, she's wearing a thong," Beast said in a soft voice toward Logan,

"If we tell this to Ranma later, that means he won't try and find out later,"

Logan said, "Yeah, you're right,"

"What's goin on here?" Logan said in a loud voice.

He had heard ruckus from the cabin just as he was landing the Blackbird over

an open field. The field was located adjacent to the collapsed building a short

distance away. All the group needed to do to get to the site was to cross the

field and the street.

"Let the hell go," Rogue said, taking her gloves off, ready to touch Ranma

and sap some of his life-energy right out of him. She was that serious.

One of Rogue's special ability, besides super-human strength and flight, was

her ability to absorb a person's powers and be able to use it for her own

through simple touch. This ability made her an extremely powerful mutant since

it gave her the ability to make herself more powerful by stealing her opponent's

powers while still retaining her previous powers. Of course, it was also a

double edge sword since doing so made her absorb her opponent's psyche and

personality, making her lose her own identity in the process.

At the moment, Rogue was willing to go to such extremes to do that.

"If ya don't let go right now, you're gonna be very sorry," Rogue gave him one

last warning.

Ranma let go, which made Rogue stagger backwards where she fell into her seat.

"Fine," Ranma said, somewhat annoyed, "Consider us even,"

This confused everyone.

"You saw me naked," Ranma said, "But I guess pissing you off this much is a

good enough to call it even,"

"Why you!" Rogue got out of her seat, pulling one of her sleeves up, her hand

clenched into a fist.

"What the hell's going on here?" Cyclops shouted, hitting the side of the

cabin with his fist, sending a loud noise reverberating through the cabin and

causing everyone to turn toward Cyclops.

Cyclops, trying to assume leadership over his team, had no real idea what was

going on. The cabin seemed in complete chaos.

"Ranma is being more of a jerk than usual," Asuka answered, saying that more

to herself than anyone else.

Cyclops pressed a button near the door to the cockpit to open up the back

latch to the plane. It started lowering much like the way that of a cargo plane

lowered.

As it lowered, Cyclops approached Ranma.

"You, follow me, you and me need to have a talk," Cyclops said, heading out of

the plane, "I'm gonna have a few words with you,"

Ranma crossed his arms and stood right where he was, grinning. He wondered how

far Cyclops would keep on walking before he realized he wasn't being followed.

"Now!" Cyclops said in a very loud and authoritative voice when he realized

Ranma wasn't following him.

Ranma was a bit surprised at how commanding Cyclops could be. There was

definitely an air of authoritative to the man that he didn't notice initially.

This made Ranma's realize that Cyclops seemed like he really was a good leader-

type person.

He headed out of the planed. As he did, he removed the headset device and

handed it to Asuka, "Here, hold this for a second,"

"What for?" she asked.

The group, save for Asuka and Logan, listened but couldn't understand what

Ranma was saying to her, his native language no longer being translated.

After Ranma disappeared out of the plane and walked a short distance out of

earshot of most of the people, save for Logan since he has heightened sense and

hearing was one of them, everyone turned toward Asuka.

"What did he just say to you? Why'd he take the headset off?" Jean was the

first to ask.

Since Logan understood Japanese, he said, "Ranma wanted her to hold it

because, that way, he wouldn't be able to understand what One-Eye is saying to

him,"

"Wow," Beast was truly impressed, "This guy's unbelievable,"

"Pretty smart if you ask me," Logan snickered, his animosity toward Ranma a

little less now, "I wish I could do that. Sometimes, the stuff the lectures that

spews from One-Eye's mouth makes me wish he'd just shut up, or that I had a mute

button,"

Everyone in the cabin just gazed out the opening toward the two individuals a

good distance away. They noticed that Ranma was just nodding toward Cyclops at

random times in an almost apologetic way while Cyclops seems to be yelling at

him.

A few minutes later, Ranma came back into the plane while Cyclops walked away,

heading in the direction of the collapsed building. Once inside, Ranma placed

the headset on while everyone looked at Ranma in amazement of his audacity and

his general disregard of authority.

"Have you any idea what One-Eye was saying to you, bub?" Logan asked with a

smirk, finding it rather amusing how much Cyclops had ranted toward Ranma, about

stuff like staying away from his wife, and to stop being such a nuisance, and

that he could go home right now for all Cyclops cared about.

Ranma shrugged, "Haven't a clue. Didn't understand a word he said. That's the

whole point why I took it off in the first place,"

The collapsed building was a horrendous sight to behold.

No one from the group had expected to see what they saw.

It turned out the collapsed building was an elementary school. The thought of

all those young kids, their lives snuffed out before they even had a chance to

become someone, was a shock even to the most stoic of people.

"Oh man," Logan said, "This is horrible,"

Jean used her telekinetic powers to levitate massive chunks of debris and off

to a safe location.

Rogue was in the thick of things, using brute strength to lift massive chunks

of concrete and throwing it off onto a pile slowly forming off to the side of

the school.

Storm aided the firefighters in putting out a fire that had broken out in the

parking lot located behind the school. It turned out a gas main located right by

the lot exploded during the collapse and several cars were sent up in blazing

infernos.

Cyclops was busy using his optic laser to cut through the steel support beams

littered among the concrete.

"Oh my god, all those kids," Ranma was completely stunned.

"What are you waiting for?" Logan said, pausing from cutting large pieces of

concrete into smaller pieces so he could throw them to he side, "Just follow our

lead and begin unearthing whatever debris you can,"

"I can do better than that," Ranma said.

He waved a hand in front of him.

All of a sudden, all the debris lying about started levitating. In a sense, it

seemed similar to Jean's method of removing debris, but on a grander scale.

Instead of moving large chunks of debris at a time, all the debris levitated.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, shocked at what they were seeing. They

were seeing telekinesis that made Jean's own powers seem puny.

Everyone gasped as they saw bodies of little children and school staff members

also being levitated among the debris.

"Stop, there're bodies among the debris," Asuka said.

She gasped at the sight of all those bodies. She didn't bother to count but

knew there must've been at least a hundred dead bodies floating around, over

ninety percent of them little children.

Ranma waved his hand in the direction of an open area next to the collapsed

building. When he did so, all the dead and unconscious bodies of the children

and teachers and staff members levitated off toward the side and gently hovered

down to the ground.

Waving the hand again, the debris started to magically come together, coming

into place like that of a puzzle that had been torn apart.

Everyone gasped as they found themselves watching the debris come together to

solidify and become what the school used to be before it collapsed.

As the debris continued to form together, Ranma left what he was doing to rush

over to where all the children lay.

"Damn, none of them stood a chance," he said sadly, shocked at how many

children died in the collapse. He had a real soft spot for children.

"Oh well, lucky for them I'm here, hee hee," Ranma chuckled.

He waved a hand again as all the dead bodies started glowing bright green.

"What the hell?" Jean shielded her eyes. It was basically what everyone else

was thinking as they watched everything unfold in front of them.

The glowing lasted for a short moment, disappearing as fast as it appeared.

When it disappeared, the children started moving. Most of them sat upright,

confused on what was going on, not knowing where they were.

"My baby!" one distressed mother, who have heard of the collapse, rushed

forward from the crowd being kept at bay, running up to a little six-year old

girl.

As if the woman was catalyst of what was to come, all the concerned parents

that had been worried sick being held behind the barrier broke through, nearly

trampling over the hapless police that whose job was to keep them back so

everyone could do their jobs. They rushed onto the field of kids and all grabbed

at their respective children, praising the lord that their children were dead.

"H-he can resurrect people?" Jean gasped, telepathically sensing a deluge of

confused thoughts emanating from all the children. Those thoughts were silent

just a minute ago. Those kids were definitely dead a short while ago.

Asuka rushed up to Ranma, "Wow, I didn't know you can do that,"

Ranma smirked, "Thanks,"

"It looked much like what the God-version of yourself did that day when the

street was nearly destroyed during that fight between that alternate you and

Ryoga," she commented, "I remember seeing how all the junk and debris and

everything came together to form all the destroyed stuff,"

Ranma nodded, "I remember that. That was a while ago,"

"What did you do here?" she asked, "Did you do something similar?"

He nodded, "Yep. I did the exact same thing as then. I reversed time,"

"Wow," she said, "T-that's awesome,"

The X-Men came rushing up to them.

"What the hell was that?" Psylocke was the first to ask. Everyone nodded as if

wanting to ask that same question as well.

Ranma gave a small smile, "Um, nothing much,"

"If that's yer idea of nothin', ah'd luv to know what yer idea of somethin' is

then," Rogue said, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be furious at

him for what he did earlier.

"What was that?" Jean asked, knowing full well that it wasn't telekinesis. She

was in tuned with telepathic and telekinetic powers when in use. The sensation

she sensed when everything was being put back together was something different,

something completely alien to her.

Ranma placed a hand over Asuka's head and rubbed it, "As Asuka, she's the one

that showed me it,"

"I did?" Asuka asked, extremely confused.

Ranma nodded, "Yep,"

Asuka's eyes widened, "That? You're kidding me, right? That's your power?"

"What power?" everyone asked.

"He controls entropy," Asuka said.

"Entropy?" Beast asked, "The process of order that deteriorates with the

passage of time? That's his power?"

"Bingo," Ranma grinned, "Among other things that is,"

Only Beast and Jean from the group seemed aware of the significance of what

that meant.

Ranma looked around, mostly toward the children that, although confused at

what was going on, were alive and well.

"Well, it seems like our jobs done,"

"It's kind of complicated," Beast said to the group. Everyone was standing

around in the cabin, the Blackbird having been set to autopilot for the trip

back home. Aside from Beast, no one really understand what was so special about

entropy. Jean and Storm happened to have heard of the term before, but didn't

really understand anything much about it or its significance. Cyclops, Rogue,

Psylocke, and Logan had no idea what it was.

"Entropy is something that's very relevant in thermodynamics. Scientists

believe everything, like our universe, is evolving toward a maximum state of

entropy," Beast said, "Eventually, our universe will reach a uniform temperature

where there will be no energy source or absorption. Basically, stars and

galaxies and life as we know them will cease to exist and there will be no life.

Entropy is the energy that's lost or unavailable,"

Asuka raised her hand, "Um, Beast, can I try to explain it? I explained it to

Ranma and he seemed to have actually understood it. Maybe my explanation might

help,"

"Go head," Beast said.

"If you drop an egg on the floor, what happens to it?" she asked, "It breaks.

If a broken egg is dropped on the floor, what happens? It'll stay broken.

Entropy is basically the chaotic energy released when the egg is broken

that can never be replenished or recreated. The energy released is energy like

sound waves and increase of heat from impact and such,"

The group seemed to still be able to follow Asuka's example. She liked that.

The group was very smart and seemed to pick up on things really quickly.

"Once this energy is released, it can't be put back," she said, "Because if it

could, the egg could become whole again, but that doesn't and won't happen.

That's entropy. Eventually, there will be no more energy to lose since energy

lost from entropy is irrecoverable. Once that happens, the universe will cease

to exist. What you saw was someone that actually solved that problem and seeing

it in reverse with your own eyes,"

"Interesting," Storm said, "From what it seems, that's an incredible aspect to

have control over,"

"Among other things, yeah," Ranma grinned.

"Something like that make's Magneto's control over magnetism seems like

nothing in comparison," Jean commented.

"Magneto?" Ranma asked. He liked that name. Perhaps not everyone on this world

had weird sounding codenames, provided that that was a codename.

"His real name's Eric Magnus Lensherr but everyone calls him Magneto," Beast

stated, "He can control magnetism which makes him an very formidable opponent

since, afterall, magnetism exists everywhere. However, through the use of

entropy, you cancel out magnetism as if it never existed,"

"Um, whatever," Ranma said, not all that interested, "If you say so,"

At that moment, everyone silently thanked their lucky starts that Ranma wasn't

on the side of bad. Sure, he was definitely chaotic and almost borderline evil,

but he was still good in nature. He displayed it by saving all those people. The

thought of having to deal with Ranma with Magneto's point of view, that humans

should be ruled over by mutants, would most likely mean their inevitable defeat.

"I saw you bring those children back to life," Jean said, "I know they were

dead because I couldn't sense their telepathic signature. But after they glowed

like that, they suddenly came to life. Does that mean you can bring people back

to life?"

"Among other things, yeah," he said.

"You keep saying that," Psylocke said, "What other things can you do?"

"Not tellin'," Ranma said, "Why should I tell you? I believe in the motto, a

strong dog doesn't need to bark,"

"Actually, you're not telling because even you dunno what it is?" Asuka

smirked. She remembered Ranma mentioning that he forgot most of what he knew, be

it the use of his infinite assortment of powers as well as the wealth of

knowledge.

Ranma gave a meek smile, "Um, that too. But who cares, with what I do

remember, I can do plenty of damage,"

"Isn't it better that you say something along the lines of 'With what I do

know, I can do plenty of good'?" Beast asked hopefully. That way, he and the

rest would have a better idea of Ranma's alignment between good and evil.

Ranma shook his head, "Nah. 'Damage' sounds cooler,"

He looked around the room, expecting everyone to fall down from surprise.

However, they did not and looked rather worried. This made him wonder what he

needed to do to get any of them to simply fall down from surprise.

"I thought it was something like 'I'm a good guy, but I'm only a bad guy when

it's convenient," Asuka commented.

"That motto too," Ranma smiled.

Everyone was silent. They did not like that motto of his and hoped he didn't

really believe in it.

"Hey, you're from Canada, right?" Ranma asked.

Logan regarded Ranma for a moment, wondering how he knew. Ranma and Logan were

trailing the rest of the group, on their way toward the elevator across the

hanger that would lead them up to the school. The Blackbird was housed in a

hanger located deep underground. The entrance to the hanger was via a hidden

entrance on the side of a cliff located near the Xavier school.

"What about it?" he asked.

"What did you used to do in Canada? Lumberjack?" Ranma smirked, "Is it true

that everyone from Canada either is a lumberjack, or knows someone that's a

lumberjack?"

"What did you say, bub?" Logan sneered, "You lookin' to start a fight with

me?"

Ranma laughed, "I'm just fucking with ya,"

"I don't care how powerful you are," Logan said coldly, "Don't think for one

second I'm scared of fighting ya,"

"Now now," Jean said, "No need to fight. Let's just head back to the school

and let the professor know we're back,"

She couldn't help but find it amusing, Logan's personality. That guy would

fight anyone and anything. He was a constant in this universe and can always be

expected to be up to fighting against anyone.

"Hmph," Logan said, "Fine,"

Ranma nudged at Logan's side, "Ah, it seems like Logan here's whipped. Seems

like Jean's got a spell cast over him that pussyfied him,"

Logan extended a hand up close to Ranma's chin and extended his two outer

claws so that it shot upward and around the sides of Ranma's face, right up to

his temples.

"The left claw's Alpha," Logan grinned, "The right claw's Omega. Care to find

out which claw Gamma is?"

Ranma burst out laughing, "I like that. That's funny. I got one for you,"

Ranma reached out and moved his hand very close to Logan's private area. This

surprised Logan because Ranma's hands was a lot closer to that area than he

wanted.

"Who do you think's faster?" Ranma grinned like an idiot, "Your hand and your

claws or my hand and your balls? I betcha you don't have adamantium protecting

you there,"

Logan retracted his claws as Ranma moved his hand away.

The two of them glared at one another.

"What are you two doing?" Jean said, "Logan, what, now you're starting fights

with Ranma?"

"Hey, woman, why dontcha just keep on walking?" Logan said, "If I wanna beat

the crap outta Ranma, that's my prerogative,"

Cyclops whom had been in the front of the group, stopped to regard Ranma and

Logan.

"What do you want, One-Eye?" Logan said.

Cyclops walked toward Logan, stopping right in front of him. Cyclops, much

taller than Logan, dwarfed Logan in stature. Of course, Logan looked not on bit

perturbed by that fact.

"If you and Ranma wanna go at it, go right ahead," Cyclops said, "But leave my

wife out of it,"

"Hey, dontcha have some soup kitchen to volunteer at around now, Mr. Goody Two

Shoes?" Ranma said to Cyclops.

"What did you say?" Cyclops snapped.

Ranma burst out laughing, "I'm just kidding. Damn, you're even easier to fuck

with than Logan here,"

"Watch it, bub," Logan said, bringing his claws up close to Ranma's private

area.

"Dude, I may have an AT Field protecting me there, but I take any kinda attack

there personal," Ranma narrowed his eyes.

"Good,"

new stuff 7/14

Ranma stared up at the ceiling of the guest room as he lay in bed, wondering

what he should do.

Asuka seemed pretty well occupied reading the last portion of her book,

sipping at the soda she got from the cafeteria. She would head down to the

library shortly once she was done.

"I'm bored," he muttered.

"So go do something," she said.

"Maybe we should have sex or something, that oughta pass the time well," Ranma

joked.

Asuka spit out her soda, "What?"

"I'm jus' joking," Ranma chuckled, "Lighten up,"

"Well, why does it hafta be a joke we can give it a try?" Asuka said.

"What?" Ranma quickly sat upright, shocked to hear that.

Asuka giggled, blushing slightly.

"Heh, hoisted by my piece of turd," Ranma said, laughing.

"Huh?" Asuka said.

"Ain't that how you say it?" Ranma said.

Asuka laughed, "I think you mean by 'hoisted by my own petard',"

"Oh," he scratched his head, giving a shy smile.

The two of them laughed for a short while, the atmosphere becoming very light.

Asuka had been a bit distracted at the thought of knowing Ranma was in the same

room with her, what with the fact that the images of him naked was still evident

in her mind, but now she felt a bit at ease.

"If you want to do something, wanna go get some food?" Asuka asked.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" he smiled warmly.

"Um, if it seems that way," she said, putting the book down, feeling a bit

braver than usual.

Ranma hopped up off the bed, "Sure, let's go get some food,"

"T-that's it?" she asked. She couldn't believe how easy it was to basically

ask him out. It was so easy.

"What's it?"

"Nevermind," she said, "Okay, let's go get some food,"

"What's that pin on your shirt?" Asuka asked as she and Ranma sat at their

table waiting for their order to arrive.

Ranma said, "You notice that now? I've been wearing this for about a week or

so,"

"What is it for?" she asked again.

Ranma shrugged, "Not too sure. Shinji gave it to me. He said it was for some

pet project of his,"

"Can I see it?" she extended her had.

Ranma took the pin off and handed it to the young girl. Asuka then went about

inspecting the pin.

After a minutes of inspecting, Asuka realized that it was a hidden-camera. She

suddenly recalled a conversation she had with some of her classmate back home,

"Oh my god! You're the 'Random Encounters' guy! I was right!"

"Huh?" he asked.

"Um, nevermind," she said, quickly handing back the pin.

She had the funny feeling that if Ranma was told about that, he'd actively

start going out and approaching more random females, to get more footage of his

handywork for Shinji to work with. This way, if he wasn't aware of it, he would

go about as usual and not actively approach random females.

However, now that Asuka thought about the webpage, she wondered just how good

Ranma was. It was claimed that Ranma was able to get the girls to divulge

information about themselves without Ranma even asking for it.

"Um, can you do me a favor?" she asked.

"Sure, what is it?" he asked.

Asuka pointed toward this woman she spotted in the corner of the diner who was

sitting alone, "Can you go talk to her?"

"Her? What for?" he asked, scratching his head, "I don't know who she is.

What, you know her?"

"No, I don't know her," she answered, "But can you just talk to her?"

"Well, yeah, but whatever for?" he asked.

"Just for the sake of chit chat," she said.

"You want me to chit chat with that girl?" Ranma asked, pointing toward the

back of the girl sitting alone.

Asuka nodded. She believed that she was making a mistake but was pretty sure

that there was no way Ranma could be as smooth as her classmates claimed the

'Random Encounter' guy was.

"Okay, I'll go chat with her," Ranma shrugged, "But I'm coming back when the

food arrives,"

"Okay," Asuka said.

She curiously and jealously watched as Ranma got up from the table and walked

over to the table with the lone girl. Leave it to Ranma, whom probably didn't

even see what the girl looked like until he actually sat down, to sit down in

front of an extremely beautiful girl of around twenty-five years of age.

"Hello," Ranma smiled warmly.

"Hello," the girl regard the man curiously.

"You here alone?" he asked.

"No, I'm waiting for my boyfriend," she replied.

Asuka was able to eavesdrop on the conversation from where she was seated and

breathed a sigh of relief. Because the girl had a boyfriend, Ranma's advances

would be for naught. But then again, now that she thought about it, had Ranma

EVER made advances at a girl before?

"I'm Ranma," he didn't seem one bit daunted by the fact the girl had a

boyfriend. Actually, it seemed like he didn't even care and was just interested

in talking.

"I'm taken," she said.

"I know, ya told me," he said.

"Well, now the we've got that cleared, I guess I can tell you my name," she

said, "My name's Jen. Just curious, why are you talking to me?"

"What, we can't just talk?" Ranma asked, getting up, "All right, I'll leave

then. No harm done,"

"Wait, no need to go," the girl said, "Please, stay,"

"Huh?" he asked.

"Please, stay," the girl said, genuinely interested, "I'd like to hear what

you've got to say,"

At that moment, a waitress holding plates of the food that Ranma and Asuka

ordered walked right past the table, heading for his table.

Ranma got out of his seat, "Well, my food's here. It's been nice talking to

you,"

"Um, likewise," the girl said.

Ranma turned around to walk away,

"What, you're really not going to ask me for my phone number?" the girl was

surprised.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, "What the heck would I want your phone number for?"

"I'll give it to you if you want it," she said, reaching into her pocketbook.

Ranma looked completely confused, "Dontcha have a boyfriend? What kinda

girlfriend are you to give some other guy a phone number?"

"Oh, it was just a ruse," the girl said, "I really don't have a boyfriend. I

just use it to make myself seem off-limits to all those that hit on me,"

"Right," Ranma said sarcastically.

"I'm telling you the truth," she said truthfully.

"Okay," Ranma said, "I believe you. Now if you'll excuse me,"

"Here," the girl reached into her pocket and produced a business card.

Ranma took the card and looked at it.

"Vice-president of Limitless Solutions?" Ranma read the job title.

"Yes," she said, "It's an Internet company. We specialize in networking,"

"Okay," Ranma said, walking off, "I'm going to go eat now,"

"Nice meeting you, Ranma," she said, getting up out of her seat, throwing a

hundred on the table to pay for the bill, "Hope to hear from you soon,"

Ranma said, "Okay,"

He watched as the girl left the diner, several male patrons basically ogling

her as she left before resuming their meals.

Scratching his head, Ranma went back to his table and sat down.

"What the heck just happened?" he asked, genuinely confused, "Why the hell did

she gimme her phone number? I didn't want it,"

Asuka said nothing, basically in a state of shock of what she had overheard.

Why did that woman have to give him her number? Ranma didn't want it but the

woman gave it anyway. What a skank.

"Um, are you going to call her?" Asuka asked, not liking what she was going to

hear. Ranma had the girls number so he was basically now obligated to call.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Ain't gonna call her. Never asked for her number

in the first place,"

"R-really?" Asuka smiled in relief.

"Man, I really wish this world was the opposite of our world, where it's the

guy's job to ask girl's out. That way, I can just mind my own business and not

hafta end up in these situations since it'll be girls expecting me to approach

'em," Ranma commented.

Asuka fell out of her chair.

Ranma entered the War Room.

His meal with Asuka had been uneventful.

They took their time eating, indulging in conversations about nothing in

general. When they were done, the went back to the school where Ranma and Asuka

split up. Asuka went to the library to pick up the second book to the

'Immortality' trilogy she started reading and went back to their bedroom.

Ranma figured he'd see who was in the War Room and see who was there at the

moment.

"Ah, just the person I'm looking for," Beast said.

"I don't swing that way, dude," Ranma replied.

Beast laughed. Ranma's sense of humor, although a bit crude, was rather funny.

"Whatcha want?" Ranma asked, walking over to the window and looking into the

Danger Room. In there, Psylocke and Rogue were sparring against one another.

Beast pointed toward the screen, "I have here the blueprint of 'Penino Hall',

where the auction is being held,"

Ranma said, "I don't understand,"

"Adamantium is a very expensive and it's basically guaranteed that a lot of

potential bidders will be bidding for the adamantium when it's put up for

auction," Beast said, "Now that I know the layout of the building, I can

determine where the most probable location the suppressor devices will be

located,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Ya lost me a few sentences ago,"

"It's a give that these suppressor devices will be laid out throughout the

building," Beast said, "They project an area of effect where any entering that

area will not be able to use his or her mutant powers. This prevents all the

telepathic mutants from doing what we plan on doing,"

"Oh?" Ranma asked, "And what will we be doing?"

"Since I'll know where those devices will be located, we can go in and disable

them," he commented, grinning, "Once they're disabled, we, Jean actually, can

use her telepathic abilities to make no one bid for the item,"

"I should just steal it," Ranma muttered, "It'd be much easier and much more

fun,"

Beast shook his head, "That's not the way we operate. If there is a legitimate

way of going about acquiring the adamantium you seek, we'll go that approach,"

"How's telepathically manipulating people to not bid any better than just

outright stealing it?" Ranma grinned, "Why not just telepathically make the

people holding the auction just give it to us?"

"That would be stealing," Beast said, "Since we will be bidding, we will be

buying it legitimately and not stealing it,"

Ranma sighed, "Yeah, whatever. I guess that seems like a legit point of view,"

"I need a few hours to calculate the best locations where those suppressor

devices are located and then we are good to go," Beast said, "Since the auction

is tomorrow, we will have more than enough time to have them disabled before it

starts. After we're done, all we have to do is wait until the adamantium is put

up and bid and get the sale,"

"Sounds like a good plan," Ranma smiled, "Damn, you're good,"

"I told you you don't have to worry about our situation about getting the

money to bid," Beast said.

"Who will be attending the auction?" Ranma asked, "By 'we' it seems like it'll

only be you and me,"

"Jean and Psylocke will be coming along of course since we need their

telepathic abilities," Beast said, "It'll probably be just the four of us. Oh

yeah, and Asuka if she plans on tagging along,"

"What, no one else is coming?" Ranma asked.

Beast shook, "Not likely. Keep in mind we'll be halfway across the world. If

anything happens around here, there will be no one around to respond quick

enough. X-Men, although they do do missions like what we did before, are around

to fight off mutant attacks. We can't spread our forces thin,"

"Gotcha," Ranma said.

Beast leaned back in his seat, smiling confidently, "I must say, that's a

rather brilliant plan I came up with. I hope it goes off without a hitch,"

"Hopefully," Ranma said, believing it highly doubtful.

Ranma regarded Rogue and Psylocke in the heat of battle with their sparring

match. He paid more attention to Rouge and her way of fighting.

"Man, Rogue fights like she's brawling or something," Ranma commented.

Beast said, "I know. That's her how she fights. It may look a bit crude, but

it's highly effective. It makes good use of her strength,"

Ranma shook his head, "Um, I hate to break it to ya, but not really,"

"What do you mean?" Beast asked, surprised. It was evident that Ranma was a

fight specialist. If he mentioned anything about fighting, Beast made sure he

would take notes.

"Rogue fights like Logan," Ranma said, "They take advantage of their mutant

powers. But why should they rely on it? What happens if, say, their mutant

powers were suppressed. How would they fair?"

"Oh, they'll fair quite well without it," Beast stated confidently.

Ranma shook his head, "I dunno. Logan'll probably be knocked out first against

a skilled opponent, that is, not unless Logan gets to him first,"

"I don't understand," Beast said.

Ranma said, "Logan can take damage because of his healing abilities.

Therefore, he's a bit sloppy since he's got a lot of leeway to work with. He can

dish out a lot of damage because of those claws. Now what if you remove that

healing ability and those claws? He'll probably do well. His adamantium coated

skeletal structure would probably make his punches and kicks and headbutts

incredibly painful for whoever's on the receiving end. Unfortunately, he'll

probably find himself with a lot of trouble fighting against someone like

Psylocke. Actually, from what I see, Psylocke's probably the best fighter out of

the group. Watching Strom, she's pretty damn good,"

"That's an interesting observation," Beast said, "It seems like what you're

saying is that we use our special abilities too much,"

Ranma nodded, "Yep. I just think that if you have a strong grasp of the basics

and have a strong foundation, you'll be an even better fighter when you add

those abilities on top of it. I think the powers you're given should complement

your fighting ability, not compensate it,"

"Have you thought of telling this to them?" Beast asked, "I'm sure everyone

here, although they'll probably be a bit offended at having their way of

fighting critiqued, will most likely take your words into consideration,"

"You've got a point. I'll go talk to 'em," he said.

Ranma grinned as he gazed into the Danger Room and saw Psylocke execute a

perfect shoulder throw on Rogue, slamming her on the ground hard. Of course,

because of her near invulnerability, Rogue was barely fazed. What did faze her

was how she had been so easily thrown like that.

He grinned.

Psylocke, what an exceptional fighter, he thought.

"Seems like you've taking a shining to Psylocke," he heard Beast.

"W-what?" Ranma turned toward Beast, "W-what makes you think that?"

Beast just laughed as he turned back toward the computer.

After a second, he turned back toward Ranma, "Hey, guess what?"

"That since this world has mutants, we shouldn't be surprised to find Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles wandering our sewers?" Ranma chuckled.

"Huh?" Beast asked, wondering what Ranma meant by that.

"Nevermind, what is it?" he asked.

Beast said, "Well, when you were tugging at Rogue's pants, I happened to have

caught of glimpse and saw the color,"

Ranma smirked, "Well, given her hair color, I assume it's naturally brown. The

white on her bangs can't throw me off,"

"Not that!" Beast gasped in shock at Ranma's perversion.

"Then what are you talking about?" Ranma scratched his head.

"Her underwear," he said.

"Really?" Ranma said, "She wears underwear? I figure a girl like that goes

commando,"

"Goes commando?" Beast had never heard that term before.

"That's the term for guys," Ranma said, "Dunno what it is for girls. Y'know,

'Going Commando', a soldier running free in the bush. Not wearing any

underwear,"

Beast burst out laughing, "That's a funny term if I must say so myself,"

"So, what kind was it?" Ranma asked, really interested.

Beast took a moment to say, "I can't believe I'm telling you this. This feels

wrong on so many levels,"

Ranma's logic seemed the complete opposite, "How's it wrong? As men, we have

our obligations. If you see a girl's panties and know what color or kind it is,

you're obligated, as a guy, to tell other guys. It's just like when you see a

girl showing some nice cleavage, you're obligated to share in the wealth and

tell your friends,"

Beast said, "That's some crazy way of thinking. Interesting way of thinking,

but crazy nonetheless,"

Ranma said, "So, what didja see?"

"Well, I saw that she was wearing a thong," he said, also telling him the

color.

"Really? Interesting," Ranma scratched as his chin.

"What does it mean?" he asked, genuinely interested.

Ranma recalled what he read, "The article said that someone that wears that,

subconsciously wonders why not as many people compliment them on how good they

look. They wonder if there's something wrong with the way they look,"

"Gee, I think you just described the way EVERY female thinks," Beast said.

Ranma said, "There's more. It also mentioned that the wearer is still a bit

confused on who she is and yearns for human touch but seems to be bothered by

something that is preventing her. It says the wearer's very strong willed and

usually does things before thinking things through. And the funny thing is that

deep down inside, the wearer wants guidance, like a strong man or fatherly

figure in her life to acknowledge what she does and her existence,"

Beast's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"That's what I read," Ranma said, "How close to is it to describing Rogue?"

"Oh man, I got chills," Beast said, "That described her to a T,"

"Really?" Ranma said.

Beast grabbed at a pencil and paper, "What's the name of this magazine you

read? I have to read it. This is some incredible information,"

"It's a Japanese magazine," Ranma said, "'Today's Woman' is its name.

Unfortunately, unless you can read Japanese, you won't be able to read or

understand what's written,"

Beast jotted down the name as he said, "Don't worry, I've got way around

that,"

Ranma burst out laughing, "Wow, Beast, you surprise me. Slowly but inevitably,

you're moving toward the Dark Side of male-hood. This is awesome. All we need to

do is recruit Nightcrawler and we will have the ultimate panty raiders!"

Beast did a double take, "W-w-what?"

"Panty raiding," Ranma grinned, "That's the best way to find out what kind

they wear,"

Beast was deathly silent.

"You and Logan are required to help me out with my plans. Well, it turns out

what I plan to do is go panty raiding. You guys hafta come with me because of

that wager you lost," Ranma grinned.

"P-Panty raiding? Y-you're kidding me, right?" Beast was almost at a loss of

words.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Based on what you told me, it seems like the

article is spot on. Therefore, tonight, we go find out if it holds true for the

other girls,"

"But-"

"There's no better way," Ranma said.

Beast's mind was racing for ideas, "If you really absolutely must find out,

can't we just hang in front of the laundry room and just wait and look in their

laundry basket when they go there to do their laundry?"

"Yeah, we can, but that's no fun," Ranma chuckled, "There's no danger in

that,"

"But you said that if we get caught, which you say is inevitable, we are going

to die," Beast said. He knew he wasn't going to be killed but he was pretty sure

they would damn near come close to killing him.

Ranma laughed, "I did say that. The fun part is trying to avoid the

inevitable,"

"Ranma, something that's inevitable means it can't be avoided," Beast tried to

correct him, "'Avoiding the inevitable' is like saying 'Expect the unexpected'.

It doesn't work,"

Ranma seemed like he was having none of that, "That's the fun part, trying to

see if that really holds true,"

"This is nuts," Beast said, pinching rubbing his temple, a headache forming.

"Hey, you and Logan lost the wager so don't try and pussy outta this," Ranma

chuckled, "Let's see how far along we can get before we get caught and killed in

the process,"

Since it seemed like there was no way Beast or Logan could get out of this

unless basically running away like cowards from upholding their wager, they had

to do what Ranma had planned.

"Well, since it seems Logan and I are basically in deep trouble and are

expected uphold our end of the wager and go 'panty raiding' with you," Beast

stated, "And because I divulged this information about Rogue, that means we

don't have to go 'raiding' Rogue's stuff?"

Beast knew that he and Logan still had that wager to uphold. It was inevitable

that Ranma would ask them to help him out with his investigation, which was most

likely some form of panty raiding. He had read about that stuff on the Internet.

At least with Rogue now out of the way of the investigation, they only had three

people to worry about which would lessen the chance of them getting caught and

having to die.

"Nah," Ranma said, "We don't need to investigate Rogue,"

Beast sighed. Rogue would probably give them the most bodily harm if she

caught them. Her superhuman strength would make her punches hurt the most.

"Oh man, I can't believe what I got myself into taking that bet," Beast

sighed.

Ranma chuckled, "You basically got yourself in a world of shit. Shit's

definitely gonna hit the fan tonight. The fun part is trying to to see how

little of it gets on us,"

Ranma had approached Psylocke as she was toweling off after having lost to

Rogue in the sparring match. A simple mistake on her part lead to Rogue pinning

her to the ground and twisting her arm back in an awkward position where there

was nothing she could do but give up. It kind of annoyed Psylocke because she

was clearly the better fighter.

Rogue and Ranma exchanged a few words, Rogue expressing her still festering

animosity toward Ranma for him trying to pull her pants down on the plane. Ranma

said something in return that seemed to have made Rogue a little less angry but

Psylocke had no idea what.

"What did you say to her?" Psylocke asked.

"I asked her what her deal was," Ranma said, "I told her that it's not like

she don't have a nice body and should be embarrassed about it or nothing,"

Psylocke wondered what she should say in reply. It sounded like Ranma had

involuntarily complimented Rogue without having realized it and that seemed to

have cooled her down slightly.

Ranma, knowing of Rogue's personality based on the article, had simply told

her that he had watched her fight and thought she did great, to appeal to the

subconscious side of her that yearned acknowledgement. He then went on to say

that he found some flaw in her way of fighting but and was willing to train her

and basically be a 'guidance' for her to become a better fighter. To his

expectation, and everyone's surprise had they been there, Rogue actually said

she would give it some thought.

"I saw you use the Perfect Shoulder Throw on Rogue back there," Ranma smiled

warmly.

"You did?" she asked in surprise, "What do you think?"

"It was executed perfectly," he nodded, "Couldn'tve been done better. Must've

really surprised her,"

Psylocke smirked, "Yes, it did. She tried to use her super-human strength to

power herself out of the throw but I had completely leverage on my side. There

was nothing she could do,"

Ranma laughed, "That's why I call it the Perfect Shoulder Throw. It can't be

escaped once it's set in motion,"

Psylocke paused for a moment, a bit reluctant to ask him for more pointers.

She was supposed to be angry at him for what he said on the plane as well as his

bullying of Rogue but she found herself having a hard time staying angry at him.

Then again, she shouldn't really be angry at him. How could she stay angry at

someone that brought back to life hundreds of children that had died. It seemed

wrong to be angry at someone that did such an amazing deed.

Ranma was definitely rough around the edges. It made her wonder if she could

change him. If she and he got hooked up, she was pretty sure she could change

him and weed out the chauvinistic and obnoxious parts to Ranma.

What the hell am I thinking, Psylocke thought.

"It's too bad you lost," Ranma commented, "But don't worry, you win some and

you lose some. If you two fight without the use of special powers, you'd have

won, hands down,"

"Thanks," Psylocke smiled, touched by Ranma's sincerity. She cleared her

throat and said, "I'm surprised you hold back so much when you fight. It's

obvious that you have unimaginable powers, but for you to rely solely on true

martial arts techniques and use no powers what so ever, that's something I find

very surprising.

Ranma shrugged, "I fought like this before I got my powers. There's no need

for my fighting style to change now that I have it,"

"That's some wondrous powers you've got," she complimented, "I'm glad you're

on our side,"

Ranma shook his head, "My powers aren't as wonderful as you think,"

"But you can help a lot of people that way," she said.

"I can also kill a lot of people that way," he added.

Psylocke didn't say anything.

"Hey, since it seems like you learned the technique I showed you, y'wanna

learn some more from me?" he asked, changing the subject.

Psylocke, not a stupid person and knowing that the subject of Ranma's powers

was not something he cared to talk about, figured she should not press the

issue.

"If it doesn't bother you, sure, I like for you to show me more techniques,"

Ranma regarded Psylocke as she went punching the air in front of him, feeling

ridiculous.

"Do I really have to do this?" she muttered, "I know how to give a straight

punch,"

"From what I see, no, you don't," Ranma said.

Psylocke was offended, "What?"

"The form is really good but wasteful," he said, "You're aiming at the right

location for it to be a vital point on a person around my size, but you're doing

using too much motion,"

Psylocke was confused.

"You're not some comic book character or anything," Ranma said, "Only people

punch like that in comic books. You extended your arm too far forward and bend

at the waist too much. When you punch, if you extend your arm that much, most of

the strength will be coming from your arms and not your waist, which is where

the real power comes from,"

Psylocke listened to Ranma and had to admit that it sounded rather correct. He

really sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

"Your punch is strong," Ranma said, "But it could be stronger. Your punches

look actually stronger than it really is. However, we can eliminate that and

make it as strong as it can possibly be. The kinda punch you're doing as what I

label an 'action' punch. If you were, say, some comic book character, the punch

looks really strong because of the exaggerated follow-through, but at power is

actually lost. If you punch like the way I'm showing you, it's more powerful.

Sure, it doesn't look as impressive, but it works better. However, if you wanna

go for flash, stick with the way you used to punch. Or, if you want to go for

effectiveness, go the way I'm showing you,"

"Just how powerful can just the little change in body posture and follow-

through help me with my punches?" she asked.

"I'll demonstrate," he said.

He stepped in front of her and executed a punch virtually identical to hers.

There was nothing that looked special about it.

"You hear my punch?" he asked.

She shook her head, "No. I hear nothing,"

"Exactly," he said, stopping what he was doing, "That's because it doesn't cut

through the air like it's supposed to. Now, lettme show you what a punch sounds

like when it cuts through the air correctly and the waist is used to generate

the power,"

Ranma proceeded to punch in the manner that he had just taught Psylocke. She

watched and listened carefully and heard a slight 'swish' sound with every

punch.

"That sound you hear is my fist cutting through the air," he said, "It's

probably got twice as much power as the kinda punch you're used to throwing, and

that's without adding ki to the mixture,"

"Now, listen as I start putting more and more rotation of my waist behind my

punch," Ranma proceeded to punch, punching faster and faster in front of him

with every successive strike, the 'swish' noise becoming louder.

"T-that's incredible," Psylocke was genuinely impressed.

"The punch I'm doing now is probably around fifty times more powerful than the

punch you do," Ranma said, "If Rogue gets hit with this, she's definitely going

down for the count,"

"Um, can you demonstrate for me your strongest punch?" she asked, very

curious. She was seeing him demonstrate a form of punching she never knew

existed, and she figured she knew quite a bit about martial arts. It seemed like

she was wrong.

"That's about my strongest punch," Ranma lied through his teeth. Ranma's

strongest punch was capable of not only killing anything, but even wiping its

physical existence from the universe, "Anyway, let's continue on with the

training,"

Psylocke went back to punching like she had been told, Ranma watching her. She

kind of wished Ranma didn't demonstrate for her. It made her wonder how she

could ever possibly attain a punch like Ranma had demonstrated. The other way

around, at least should could've been ignorantly content believing her punch was

very powerful.

Ranma regarded Psylocke as she went about the motions. He walked around her to

see her form from a different angle.

"Well I'll be damned," he said, crouching down right by her backside,

regarding her left hamstring.

"W-what are you doing!" she blushed a horrible shade of red. From her point

of view, it looked like Ranma was ostentatiously ogling her.

Ranma reached out and touched the left hamstring of Psylocke's leg, just below

her rear end, "You injured your hamstring-"

"Eek, pervert!" Psylocke shrieked when she felt Ranma's hand brush against her

backside. Instinctively, she reeled around and slapped Ranma. This surprised the

heck out of her because her slap actually connected and sent Ranma staggering

toward the side.

"Jeez!" Ranma muttered, rubbing his cheek, "Why ya hafta go and do that?"

"Why the hell were you groping me?" Psylocke shouted.

"I wasn't groping you," Ranma retorted.

"It sure felt like it," she narrowed her eyes.

"I was merely touching your hamstring," Ranma said, "I noticed you pulled it a

while ago,"

Psylocke gave Ranma a confused look, "H-how did you know?"

"I could see it," Ranma said, "When you punch, I noticed you're not putting as

much weight on that leg. It seems like subconscious, your body moving a bit more

conservative than expected to avoid having another pulled hamstring,"

"What? You can see that?" Psylocke asked.

"I can see very subtle things," Ranma stated, "When I was staring at that butt

of yours, I noticed it, the pulled hamstring that is,"

"Why were you staring at my butt?" Psylocke blushed.

Ranma scratched his head in a very exaggerated motion, "Duh, could it be

because I'm a guy and that's what guys do? No, it can't be,"

"Hmph, men are all alike," Psylocke muttered. Since she also did modeling from

time to time, when she wasn't an X-Man, she had more than her fair share of guys

ogling at her.

Ranma said, "A good portion of your punching power is lost because if that

injury,"

"It is?" she asked, "My leg feels no weaker now than before I injured it,"

"It's just as strong as it used to be," Ranma said, "perhaps stronger since

muscles, much like bones, heal back up stronger than previously. It's just that

your body seems be holding back and preventing the full power of the step-in for

you punch to be realized,"

Psylocke regarded Ranma liked he was crazy. Her body holding back?

"Do a split," Ranma told her, "I know you can do it. While standing on your

right, bring your left leg all the way and over your head,"

"I will do no such thing, especially in front of you while wearing this

outfit," Psylocke said.

"Why not? It's not like that outfit leaves much to the imagination," Ranma

chuckled, "Especially when you kick really high,"

Psylocke was not amused.

Ranma shrugged and said, "Your hamstrings healed fine, but not correctly. It's

not stretched out as much as it's supposed to be. You need to overextend your

split to stretch it out beyond its limit to break the muscle fibers. That way, I

can massage it so it'll heal back in its rightful place,"

Psylocke continued to glare at Ranma.

Ranma began walking away, "Okay, fine by me. I just figured I'd help ya out.

But if you're not interested in my help, then so be it. That simple trick and

will probably increase your running speed and running endurance and your kick

strength and your punching strength. But if you feel what you have to work with

now, is fine by you, then it's fine by me,"

Ranma sounded very convincing.

"F-fine, what do you want me to do," she asked.

"Just stretch your left leg beyond its limit," Ranma said, "Do a split

straight up, until it hurts. I can take it over from there,"

Reluctantly, she did as she was told, but not before she told Ranma to turn

around.

"What I find funny is that if the crotch area of your outfit moves a little to

the left or a little to the right, your opponents will get quite an eyeful,"

Ranma chuckled.

A rock hit Ranma in the back of the head. Even though it didn't hurt, it made

Ranma wonder exactly where it came from for Psylocke to pick up and throw at

him. The room was completely empty. How was something like that possible. It

kind of made him wonder if he should just go on and try and say something like

'I love you' to Psylocke just to see if a chicken will hit him upside the head

to prevent him from saying the words.

After a few minutes of overstretching her left leg, Psylocke walked up to

Ranma, "Done, you can turn around now,"

Ranma turned toward her, "Okay. Lie on the floor on your stomach,"

Psylocke reluctantly did as she was told. She gave a surprised yelp when she

felt Ranma's hand start rubbing the back of her left leg. The surprised

disappeared as this feeling of relaxation enveloped her.

"Damn, your body's all fucked up," Ranma commented.

"What?" Psylocke couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was personally

offended. She knew she had a good body, the kind of body men lusted her for. For

Ranma to say something like that was completely uncalled for.

Ranma continued on rubbing, "No, not in that sense you're thinking. It's fine.

Looks damn nice if you ask me,"

"Um, thanks, I think," Psylocke was confused. She found herself very confused

around Ranma.

"I mean your bone and joints," Ranma said, "Your spine's outta alignment. So

are your shoulders. And your hips. Everything's outta alignment. Damn, now that

I'm able to get a closer look, it seems like your form of fighting isn't as good

as I figured. It overstrains the body,"

"If my body's all messed up, then shouldn't I feel like I'm all messed up?"

Psylocke asked logically.

"Not if you dunno what you're missing," Ranma said, "I dunno how you feel, but

it sure ain't one hundred percent of what you're supposed to be feeling. You may

think you feel one hundred percent, but I doubt it's even around fifty percent,"

"Get out of here," Psylocke said.

"It's probably because you do katas all the time," Ranma commented, "Your

probably practice it in excess which is why your body's like this,"

Psylocke was quiet. Perhaps she did practice a bit in excess from time to

time.

Ranma brought his hands around Psylocke's head, one hand under her chin, the

other on the top of her head. Before she realized what was going on, Ranma

snapped her neck toward the side with almost vicious force, a loud snapping

noise reverberating from her neck.

Psylocke said nothing and remained very still, believing she had just been

killed, that her spinal cord had been completely shattered. She realized she was

looking at one of the walls of the Danger Room. It suddenly dawned on her that

what was said was true, that for a brief moment before you die, you could still

see.

"Damn," she heard Ranma's laugh, "You hear that snap? It sounded like I just

broke your neck,"

As Ranma let go of her head, Psylocke expected for her head to fall right

down, unable to be supported due to the broken neck. To her surprise, her neck

felt fine.

She felt Ranma's hand grab one of her arms. Still in a state of shock, she

suddenly felt her arm get cranked backwards way behind her back, another loud

crack heard coming from her body, this time around her shoulder.

"When was the last time you went to a chiropractor?" she heard Ranma said,

"Virtually all the joints in your body need to be realigned. Frankly, I'm

surprised that I didn't notice it right away. You must be so used to this that

your probably don't even realize it,"

Psylocke tried to answered but immediately stopped when she felt her other arm

get cranked back behind her back, yet another loud cracking noise heard.

"What's funny is that we're supposed to only hear popping noises," Ranma said,

"But because you haven't really been taking care of your body, that's why it's

making a snapping noise instead,"

Psylocke said, "P-please s-stop. This is freaking me out," The sounds she was

hearing sounded blood curdling. It sounded exactly like that of breaking bones.

"Just one more," Ranma said, "Here's the one you're gonna like,"

She felt Ranma pressed both his hands on the small of her back. She then felt

pressure pressed down on that area with such force that it felt like she would

fold backwards from the force.

The moment he did that, a massive deluge of what she could best describe as an

orgasmic release enveloped her body. Her whole body shook a few times as it

contracted and became taut from these sensations, sensations she never knew

existed.

"Oh my god, w-what was that?" she asked, feeling a bit disoriented.

She tried to turn over on her back to face him but felt completely drained of

her energy, like those waves of sensations sapped all her energy, "I-I can

barely move,"

"Your body should be in good working order now," Ranma smiled, "The feeling

you got when I snapped your back was basically your body letting your brain know

that everything is in perfect working order. Think of it as your brain sending

out a signal asking your body how the body feels, and the body sends back that

response. 'Hey, body, how do you feel?', 'How do I feel, brain? I feel this

good', and then the body sends back those signals. Those signals are the

sensations you just felt.

Psylocke felt like in a state of euphoria, like she had died and gone to

heaven, like nothing in the world mattered.

"You okay?" Ranma asked.

"Y-yeah. I-I feel like I'm glowing," she replied, feeling like she had just

done something terribly wrong. There must be something wrong to be able to feel

sensations like that.

Ranma looked at her oddly, "Glowing? Y'don't look like you're glowing,"

It was all a figure of speech that Ranma didn't seem to understand.

"W-was that the, um, y'know, the o-orgasm pressure point you pressed?" she had

to ask. She remember Asuka blurting something out about that and it had been

floating around in her mind all the time.

"The 'Big-O' pressure point?" Ranma asked, "Nope. It's just me cracking your

back,"

"S-s-so you're saying that that pressure point feels even b-better?" Psylocke

had to ask. She couldn't believe what was happening to her, but that sensation

made her feel like a completely different person, like she hadn't lived until

now.

Ranma said, "All I did was crack your back. Get over it,"

Logan entered the War Room, figuring he would find Ranma there or the Danger

Room, so he could ask him for some sparring.

"Ranma around?" Logan asked Beast.

"He's in the Danger Room giving Psylocke some pointers," Beast answered.

Little did he know that Ranma had left the room long ago and gone upstairs to

probably go bother Asuka in their bedroom.

Logan walked up to the window to gaze into the Danger Room, "Hm, maybe I'll

join her and have ourselves a two-on-one sparring match against Ranma,"

He noticed that Psylocke was sleeping in the middle of the Danger Room.

"Oh, it looks like Ranma's not around," Logan said.

Beast got up from his seat and walked over to the window.

"Well I'll be, he's gone," Beast said, "I thought he was still in there

training. He must've left shortly,"

"I guess he got bored of sparring her and push that sleep pressure point of

hers," Logan said, "Man, he could at least have taken her to the Med-Lab so

she'll at least be sleeping on a bed. Jeez,"

Little did Logan know that Psylocke, feeling exhausted from having her joints

cracked, went to sleep on her own accord. Ranma, figuring she was fine where she

was, left her right where she slept.

"Too bad he isn't around, I wouldn'tve minded fighting him again," Logan

commented.

"Whatever for?" Beast said, "You saw what he did back there with the

elementary school. We've seen a lot over the years, but powers like that you

really shouldn't mess with,"

Logan let out an annoyed breath, hating how true Beast's words were. Although

he was scared of no one, fighting against someone like Ranma, especially now

that he's aware that Ranma possessed powers like that, made a chance of Logan

winning miniscule. Of course, since he was Logan, he would still fight someone

even if he had less of a miniscule chance of winning. It was not in his nature

to run away from a fight.

"I don't care, I'm still going to go spar against him," Logan headed for the

door.

"Logan, before you do, I have some terrible news," Beast said, very worried

look on his face.

Logan suddenly became concerned, "What? What's wrong?"

"Ranma plans on going on that little 'adventure' of his to determine what kind

of underwear the girls wear," Beast said.

"Really?" Logan said, "What's wrong with that?"

"We have to go along with his plan because we have to uphold our end of the

wager," Beast said.

Logan nodded, "I know,"

"He plans on going panty raiding,"

"W-w-what?" Logan stammered.

"We're in deep trouble," Beast said, worried, "They're going to catch us and

we're going to get beat within an inch of our lives. Remember what Asuka said

when she was here? She said something that Ranma believes that there's this

theory that if a girl yells 'Pervert' while she slaps you, the effects are

devastating. Do you know what that means? We're in so much trouble because if we

get caught, that's the first thing ANY of the girls will do as they use their

powers on us,"

"You believe what Asuka said?" Logan was skeptic, "About stuff like how the

properties of an attack changes if a girl says something like 'pervert' in

accompaniment with it? That's just non-sense,"

"Do you want to find out the hard way if she's telling the truth?" Beast said,

"I sure don't. Keep in mind that we're in this situation because we

underestimated Ranma. How much more trouble do you think we will be if we

underestimate Asuka's remark about that 'pervert' thing?"

Logan gulped nervously. This was actually a first ever since he came to the

Xavier school and joined the X-Men.

He and Beast were doomed.

"Afternoon, Rogue, have you seen Ranma?" Jean asked her friend.

Jean and Rogue happened to have bumped into one another in the hallway of the

school. She was on her way to Ranma's and Asuka's guestroom to ask him

"Yea, Ah saw him down in the Danger Room, why?" Rogue asked.

Jean said, "I was just talking to the professor and had explained to him of

what we saw him do earlier. Xavier thinks we should ask him to join the X-Men.

He'd be an excellent addition,"

"When'd the professor get back?" Rogue asked, referring to Xavier's recent

trip. Xavier hadn't been around since he was a busy man and usually attended

colleges to give lectures of mutation and genetics, he being one of the leading

authorities in that field.

"He goes back about an hour ago," she said.

"Anyway, I don't really agree," Rogue said, still angry at him for trying to

pull her pants down. Sure, it was all in joking manner, but she didn't find it

one bit funny.

Jean smiled, "I know you don't agree. Maybe if you give it some time, he won't

seem as bad it you see him now,"

"Ah dunno 'bout that," Rogue said, "Frankly, Ah don't think Ah can ever get

used to havin' him around, much less as a fellow team member,"

Jean and Rogue parted ways as Jean headed for the War Room.

Jean didn't get far before she spotted Ranma as he was actually on his way up

from the War Room, figuring he would pay Asuka a visit.

"Ranma, just the person I wanted to see," she said happily.

Ranma smirked mischievious, "Really? Well, I've got the time if you've got the

energy,"

Jean wished she could use telepathy on him because she would sure like to know

what he was thinking at that very moment. For a guy as chaotic and random as

Ranma, being able to use telepathy to read his mind and know what makes him tick

would be a godsend.

"I was just talking to the professor about what you did earlier with that

building," Jean said.

"Xavier? How's he doing?" Ranma asked curious, "I haven't seen him around.

It's like he disappeared shortly after I met him when I first arrived here,"

"He's a very busy man," Jean said, "He visits colleges as guest speaker in the

field of mutation and genetics,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "So, what is it you wanted me for?"

Jean smiled warmly, like she was giving Ranma good news, "The professor would

like you to join the X-Men and become a permanent resident here at the school.

Someone of your powers and knowledge and skills would be an amazing asset to our

team,"

"Really?" Ranma was rather flattered, "You guys want me to join you guys?"

Jean nodded, "Yes,"

"I'm flattered. Unfortunately, I'm not interested," Ranma said.

"Y-you're not interested?" she asked in surprised, "How come?"

With moment's like right now, she would give her right arm to be able to read

Ranma to know what was going through his mind this very moment.

Ranma said, "I'm only visiting here. I'm only interested in the adamantium.

After I get that, see ya, Asuka and I are splitting. Besides, there is no way I

will EVER wear an outfit like I saw your husband wearing,"

"Y-you're not going to stay?" she asked, "But with you around, you can help

the professor's dream, a world where mutants and humans could live in peace and

harmony, be realized,"

Ranma said, "That's his dream, that mutants and human one day be able to live

together in peace and harmony? Sounds like a good dream,"

"So why not stay and help it be realized," she said.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. I've got a life back home. I'm only visiting. You

guys are cool and all, but I would never leave my friends for you guys or your

dream. It equivalent to you guys ending up on my world and my asking you to

stay. That won't happen,"

Jean, saddened by the response, had to respect Ranma's decision.

"Besides, think about it," Ranma said, "If I helped you guys out, that dream

could easily be realized. However, if something's given to you, you don't value

it as much as if you would had to worked hard to get it yourself,"

"You're right," Jean said.

"Besides," Ranma said, "I have no intention of staying. So even if I do

decided to help out, I won't be around to be of that much use to get the ball

rolling,"

"I guess you have a point," Jean stated, "Now that I think of it, you did

mention that you planned on heading back. With a person like you, it's probably

useless for us to try and convince you otherwise,"

Ranma nodded, "Yep,"

Since there was no more reason to try and convince Ranma to stay, and she had

no tasks that needed to be attended to right away, Jean figured she might as

well indulge in conversation for a short while.

"Rogue said you were training Psylocke in the Danger Room earlier," she began,

"How goes that?"

Ranma walked over to one of the windows and sat down on the windowsill, Jean

following him, taking up leaning against the wall right next to the window.

"It went fine," he said, "She's sleeping now,"

"I thought you were training her," Jean said, "So why's she asleep? Did the

two of you spar against one another?"

Ranma shook his head, "No, we didn't spar. I noticed she was in need of a

chiropractor because her back and joints were all outta alignment. I put them

back in its rightful place and it basically made her feel so relaxed that she

fell asleep right where she was,"

"Wow," Jean said.

Ranma regarded Jean for a moment, wondering if she suffered similar ailments

like Psylocke but didn't even realize it.

"W-what?" she asked, slightly nervous under Ranma's gaze.

Ranma said, "Hm, your body seems to be fine,"

"I-I beg your pardon?" she said, shocked out how outright Ranma could be with

his comments.

Ranma said, "Yeah, your body seems fine. You take care of it,"

"Um, thank you," she said, a bit self-conscious, "Ranma, I'm flattered by your

comments and all, but this is not appropriate conduct. I'm a married woman,"

"Huh?" Ranma asked. After a moment, he laughed, "Oh, I get it,"

"Get what?" she asked.

"You think I'm complimenting you on your body," he said.

"W-weren't you?" she asked, "It sure sounded like it,"

"Hm, I guess it does sound like it," he chuckled, "But I was complimenting on

something different. Your body doesn't need any form of realignment like

Psylocke. Aside from menstrual cramps, it seems like your body's working fine,"

"M-menstural c-cramps?" Jean was once again shocked.

Ranma said, "Wow, you hide it well,"

"Whether or not I'm suffering from that is of no concern to you," Jean said,

trying to stay composed.

Ranma said, "If you rub a certain area of your feet, that's clear right up,"

"Huh?" Jean asked, "How so? This is merely for curiosity sake, mind you,"

"Right," Ranma grinned, "Anyway, the soles of your feet is like a map of the

body. Rubbing certain parts of the feet can help cure what ails you,"

"What area?" she asked.

"Your ankles," he said, "Just have your husband rub the underside of your

ankles, especially around the Achilles tendon area,"

Jean was very skeptic, "You're kidding me, right? You mean to say that if I

have someone rub the underside of my ankles and the area around my Achilles

tendon, it'll get rid of my menstrual cramps? Um, that is, if I had it,"

Ranma laughed, "Well, if you had it, yes, but since you claim you're not

suffering from such ailments, then all it does is make ya feel more relaxed,"

Jean paused for a moment. If what Ranma was telling her was true, then it

would help her out greatly.

"Just asked your husband to do that for you," Ranma said, "You'll feel much

better almost immediately,"

"Thanks, I'll take your words into consideration and ask him when I see him,"

she said.

Ranma chuckled, "But wait, I thought you weren't suffering from cramps,"

"Fine," Jean admitted, "So I may feel a little cramped up. So sue me. How

could you tell? It's not like I told you anything,"

Ranma said, "That easy. It's because of the way you're standing. You're not

standing perfectly straight,"

"I'm not even going to press the issue and ask exactly how you came about

learning something like that," Jean said, "You are full of surprises,"

Ranma smirked, "That I am,"

"Have you talked to Beast yet?" she asked, "Did he tell you about the plan

with the auction house? He told me about it earlier. I'll be coming with you to

the Philippines to help out with the auction,"

Ranma nodded, "Yep. He told me not even an hour ago. I just wanna say thanks

for helping out,"

"It's no problem," she said, "Heck, considering what you've done for us today,

it's the least I could do,"

"Of course, it kinda spoils me fun," Ranma chuckled, "I have no qualms of just

running into the think of things, blow a lot of stuff up, and steal the

adamantium in the process,"

"But that's wrong," Jean said.

"I know," Ranma smiled, "That's what'll make it so fun,"

Jean and Ranma laughed.

At that moment, Cyclops rounded the corner of the hallway and spotted Ranma

and Jean as they seemed to be laughing at some personal joke. Seeing Ranma

acting so casual to his wife angered him.

"It seems like I missed out on the joke," Cyclops said.

Ranma and Cyclops glared at one another. Actually, it looked more like Ranma

was glaring at Cyclops since the visor hid Cyclops' eyes. The glaring was broken

when Cyclops leaned forward and kissed Jean, "How're you doing, honey?"

"I'm fine," she said.

"I've got a question," Ranma said to Cyclops.

"I'm not interested in what it is," Cyclops said.

Ranma ignored the comment and said, "You wear a red visor. That must mean you

see the world mostly in a shade a red. Well, how the hell do you play cards like

poker when you can't tell what kinda red cards you have?"

Cyclops took a step toward Ranma, "Look, it's clear we don't like each other,"

"Like night and day," Ranma continued to lean against the windowsill. At the

current moment, he was seriously contemplating putting Cyclops in his place. But

then again, who was Ranma to do something like that.

Jean felt a sense of tension between the two guys and felt like she should

interrupt. The tension was so thick that it seemed like the two of them were

ready to start taking swings. Well if that was the case, she was more than ready

to telepathically link to Cyclops and make him cease the fighting, very sure

Ranma would follow suit.

"And we got off on the wrong foot," Cyclops added.

"That we did," Ranma agreed, "I sure didn't appreciate it when you tried to

shoot me with that optic blast of yours, especially when you had no idea what

the heck was going on. I don't take kindly to people taking pot shots at me,"

Cyclops took a deep breath before he offered his hand and said, "How about we

start all over again?"

Ranma was a bit surprised at that.

He looked down at the hand that Cyclops was offering. Jean just gazed back and

forth between the two guys, dying to know what was currently running through

Ranma's mind at the moment. It was very clear that Ranma wasn't expecting that

kind of response.

Ranma took Cyclops' hand and shook it, "All right. Let's start all over. Hi,

how're y'doing? I'm Ranma? It's nice to meetcha,"

"I'm Scott," Cyclops said, "But you can call me Cyclops. I'm doing fine.

Thanks for asking. It's nice to meet you, too. How are you doing?"

"Wow, I'm very surprised," Jean commented, smiling happily, "And here I

thought you two were going to butt heads,"

Cyclops reached out and placed a hand around Jean, smiling at Ranma, "And this

here is my wife, Jean. She's spoken for,"

Ranma chuckled, "I understand,"

At just that moment, Asuka happened to be walking down the hallway, on her way

to the War Room to find Ranma. She was starting to get hungry and wanted to ask

him out to get some food pretty soon.

"Ranma," Asuka approached the group, "There you are, I was just about to-"

Ranma reached out and placed an arm around Asuka's shoulder, figuring he might

as well enjoy the truce, "This here my woman, Asuka. She's with me and she's

spoken for,"

"I understand," Cyclops said.

Asuka blushed a deep shade a red. Ranma had just called her his woman. Did

that mean they were a couple?

Then something dawned on her.

"What the heck's going on here?"

new stuff 7/15

"Um, y-you said I was your w-woman," Asuka began.

She and Ranma were in their bedroom.

"Cyclops and I seemed to have ourselves a truce," Ranma said, lying on his

back on the bed, throwing the pillow up into the air and catching it as it falls

down at his face.

Asuka smiled, "That's good to hear, but that still doesn't answer my

question,"

"I said that because you were there at the moment," Ranma said, "He was saying

something about how I should stay away from his wife. Therefore, I figured I

could tell him to stay away from you. It was a spur of the moment kinda thing.

Hope you don't mind,"

"Oh, so we aren't a couple?" she asked, sounding sad.

"A couple?" Ranma asked, "No, we're not. What, you want to be?"

Asuka was silent for several moments. Feeling like she would be losing the

opportunity if she didn't say anything, she nearly shouted, "Yes,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "Doesn't bother me. Heck, considering how we hang out

together, it's like we are a couple,"

"W-we are?" she asked.

"Think about it," Ranma said, "We eat together. We go out together. We hang

out together. That's basically all the things a couple do, save for the intimacy

that is,"

Asuka said nothing. That was definitely true.

Ranma sat upright and regarded Asuka for a moment, making her feel self-

conscious suddenly.

He then laid back down again, "Strange why we never got together,"

"Huh?" Asuka was shocked to hear that, "Really?"

Ranma shrugged, "Think of it. You probably spent the most time alone with me

than anyone I know. I figured that sometime along the way, we probably would've

gotten together,"

"Y-you really think so?" Asuka said, her heart beating rapidly, "I-I never

knew you thought of us like that,"

"What, you haven't?" he asked.

"Um, well, yeah, it's crossed my mind," she said shyly.

She was so confused. Ranma's words made it seem like he was making some kind

of confession. The problem was that his casual way of speaking made it seem like

it wasn't, that he was just saying whatever came to his mind simply for the sake

of conversation.

"Heh, then again, I'm, what, five times older than you," Ranma laughed, "Even

though I look only a little bit older than you, I'm somewhere around a hundred.

Quite an age difference, dontcha think?"

"That doesn't matter," she said. It had never mattered.

"Now that I think of it, I should be settling down soon," Ranma said, "The

novelty of going on adventures and stuff doesn't quite appeal to me like it used

to when I was younger,"

"I-I never knew you thought this way," Asuka said, "All of us thought we'd be

old decrepit spinsters before you decide to settle down,"

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nah. Maybe one or two more adventures and then

that's it for me. After that, I'll undergo my final adventure, the journey to

Hell, by getting married,"

He laughed. Asuka didn't find it funny.

"That's what you think of marriage?" she asked.

"Jus' messing around," Ranma said, "Y'know how I am,"

"All too well," she said with a sigh.

At that moment, there came a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Ranma asked.

"It's Beast, I have something to show both you and Asuka," Beast said, "Turn

on the television to channel 135,"

"We have a television in this room?" Ranma asked, getting up and opening the

door for Beast.

Asuka walked over to the television set that sat unnoticed in the corner of

the room, "Yeah, we have a television. For a guy that usually picks up on minute

details, how could you not have noticed? What, maybe the only way to hide things

from you is to hide it out in the open,"

Ranma gave a light laugh.

Asuka turned on the television and stepped back to sit on the edge of the bed

and watch. The screen displayed shaky images of a collapsed building.

"Hey, isn't that-" Ranma began.

"That's the building you 'fixed' before you 'fixed' it," Beast said, "Just

watch, they've been playing it over and over the past half-hour,"

Ranma watched as an image of a person waving a hand in front of the building.

Suddenly, debris littering the area seemed to magically levitate and come

together, eventually forming into what the building used to be.

"Hey, that's me," Ranma pointed, "Damn, I look like I kick ass in there,"

"Magic? Mind-over-matter? You be the judge," came a voice on the screen, "We

have here captured on video camera an unidentified mutant using his powers to

rebuild what was once a collapsed building. Most locals are grateful for what

that unknown mutant had done. Most but not all,"

The image changed to some middle age balding man with a top hat being

interview, "We don't need any Mutie helping us out. We would've dug up those

children fine on our own,"

"Heh, I guess he doesn't realize that the children had been dead to begin

with," Ranma chuckled, "What a moron,"

"Damn, no one seems to realize what you have done," Asuka commented, "It seems

like everyone believes you simply unearthed those children. No one knows they

were dead to begin with,"

Ranma shrugged, "So?"

Asuka said, "How can you be so casual about it? Those peopl are looking a gift

horse in the mouth,"

"The children are alive," Ranma said, "That's all that matter. I don't care

what they think. I don't care if they think X-Men engineered that collapse just

so they can look like heroes,"

"Man, I can't believe they don't acknowledge what you've done," Asuka said,

really annoyed, "It's close-minded people like that is what make the world seem

far off

Beast said, "Don't worry about that interview. There are more to come,"

Another person came on the screen, a young woman holding a child, "Thank you.

Thank you for saving my child,"

The interviewer came onto the screen, "Are mutants so bad to have around as so

many people claimed? How would you feel if it was your child buried alive under

all that rubble? Would you rather risk your child dying while waiting buried

alive or accept a mutant's help? This brings to light our views of mutants. A

group of mutants arrived here earlier today and began helping out. A lone mutant

unearthed all those buried alive in a single wave of his hand, saving what

could've been the possible deaths of hundreds of children if workers didn't work

fast enough to remove all the debris. After seeing such images of obvious feats

of altruism, can you still believe that all mutants are bad? I'm Harold Linex,

reporting from Lynbrook, New York, back to you,"

The image changes to that of two newscast members sitting in front of a desk.

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever,"

"Don't you see? Humans are now starting to see mutants in a different light,"

Beast said, "The majority of mutants are feared and hated by humans. But with

acts of selflessness like these being brought to public attention, it's sure to

make people question if their views of mutants are unjust. Think about it, how

can you still maintain the belief that mutants are all bad when it's being

broadcasted on television that mutants also saved lives? They can't, not with

evidence like this,"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Beast, "Is that why the X-Men went out on that

mission, to show humans that they're not all bad?"

Beast nodded, "Yes, and it worked. It's feats like this that can help humans

realize that not all mutants are bad,"

"Hm, it seems like X-Men aren't as 'good' as they seem to be," Ranma

commented, his voice even cold.

This surprised Asuka and Beast. Beast was completely caught off-guard.

"What?" Beast asked.

"I got the impression that X-Men went there to save lives," Ranma said,

"That's why I went on the mission, to save lives. It seems like that isn't the

case. They were only interested in going there to basically go 'Hey, look at us,

we're mutants but we're not bad. You see? Not all mutants are bad as everyone

believes'. My opinion of X-Men just got lowered a few pegs,"

Beast stammered for words, "You've got it all wrong,"

"Do I?" Ranma asked.

"We were there to help save lives," Beast stated vehemently, "That was our top

priority. Making people starting to realize mutants aren't all that bad is, I

guess, a benefit to the job at hand,"

"I'll give you guys the benefit of the doubt," Ranma smirked.

Beast realized something, "Here's a question that you may want to answer. If

our main goal is to show humans that not all mutants are bad, then why did we

offer to help you regardless of whether or not we knew what you were capable

of?"

Ranma found himself at a loss of words. Beast was right. The X-Men had offered

to help them out regardless of whether they knew if he was human or mutant or

something else.

"I guess you have a point,"

Ranma and Asuka walked down the hallway together. They were both on their way

to the Danger Room.

"I think I'm plenty good enough," Asuka muttered, hoping the Danger Room was

currently in use.

"When was the last time you took a lesson from me?" Ranma asked, "I still have

a lot to teach you,"

"Hmph," Asuka said.

"It'll be a good way to pass the time," Ranma said, "That way, I can also

check to see if you've been keeping up with your practice.

Asuka looked as if offended by that comment, "I do keep up with my practice.

I'm plenty good,"

"Why dontcha have a little sparring match with Psylocke?" Ranma grinned, "It

should provide for a good fight,"

"W-w-what?" Asuka's eyes widened.

Ranma thought about it for a moment, "You two will probably be a good match

for each other, provided she doesn't use her powers and actually fights

completely conventional,"

Asuka said, "Y-you really think I can take someone like Psylocke on?"

Ranma smiled, "Yeah. Heck, I've trained you so of course I know how good you

are,"

"Wow, t-thanks," Asuka was really flattered. If Ranma believed in her, then

she should believe in herself.

"Of course, if Psylocke used her powers, you're basically up the creek without

a paddle," Ranma chuckled.

"Gee, thanks," Asuka wasn't amused.

As if on cue, Psylocke, seemingly a bit out of touch at the moment, rounded

the corner to the hallway and nearly bumped into Ranma and Asuka.

"R-Ranma," Psylocke said, suddenly blushing. Memories of the sensations she

felt in the Danger Room, thanks to Ranma, were still evident in her mind.

"Ah, just the person I wanted to see," he said.

"What about?" she asked, trying to compose herself. What the hell was wrong

with her? What did Ranma do with her? Her body felt all wound up all of a

sudden, like it was reacting to Ranma's presence.

She had been on her way to Ranma's room to thank him profusely.

After waking up from that short nap, she had gone to the Danger Room to do

some katas, having the computers record her activities. To her shock, every

value given forth by the computer of her speed, reflexes, and power were well

above her best previous effort. All her physical attributes had somehow

increased dramatically while her telepathic abilities remained the same. This

was definitely no coincidence. Whatever Ranma had done to her, cracking her

joints and such, had improved her body and its capabilities.

"First off, how do you feel?" he asked.

"I-I feel great," she said, moving her shoulders around and making flexing one

of her biceps.

"Aw, how cute, a bicep," Ranma gave her bicep a gentle squeeze between his

thumb and index finger. Psylocke has a very lean and athletic physique so her

slender musculature could be seen whenever she flexed.

Psylocke pulled her arm away, annoyed at Ranma's patronizing tone.

"Asuka and I were on our way to the Danger Room," Ranma began, "How about

you?"

"I was just coming from there," she answered.

"Would you care to spar against Asuka here?" Ranma smirked, placing a hand

around Asuka's shoulders. Asuka looked like she felt nervous under his arm but

made no effort to actually move out from under it.

"Spar against her?" Psylocke began.

"In a regular match," Ranma nodded, "A match using skill and no powers. With

powers, well, we already know the outcome. But in a match using actual martial

arts, that a whole 'nother story,"

Asuka said, "I'm against this you know, Ranma,"

"Noted, but I don't care," Ranma said.

"Ranma," Asuka said loudly.

"I'm just joking," he chuckled, "If you really really don't want to do it,

fine. Then you don't hafta. It's just that I think it would be a really good

match, that you two are evenly matched and it could go either way,"

"Well..." Asuka said, still having doubts.

"What do you think?" Ranma turned toward Psylocke, "Would you be interested in

sparring with Asuka. Of course, you can't use your powers at all,"

Psylocke regarded Asuka for a moment, taking note that the young girl didn't

have the lithe, flexible body of that of a martial artist. Was this girl really

on par in skill level as herself as Ranma stated?

"I have no problems with sparring," Psylocke said, "If Asuka's up to it, so am

I,"

"Well?" Ranma smiled at Asuka.

Asuka thought about it for a moment. She then finally sighed.

"Fine,"

The entire X-Men crew was gathered in the War Room. Inside the Danger Room was

a very nervous Asuka and a reluctant Psylocke. Asuka was clad in a dogi as was

Psylocke. Where they actually got one, no one knows.

"Ranma, are you sure about this?" Jean asked.

"Yeah, if Psylocke follows the rules and not uses her power, then she's in for

a rude awakening," Ranma chuckled, "Just keep watching,"

Everyone stood by the window, watching the two combatants circle one another,

as if assessing each other.

"Hey, when girls fights, what d'ya think the chances that they might

accidentally kiss during the process?" Ranma had to ask.

"What?" everyone in the room said.

"I'm just saying," he said, "Dontcha think it would be really cool seeing

Psylocke and Asuka accidentally kiss while in the heat of battle? That's why I

like watching girls fight, because there's that chance they might accidentally

kiss,"

"Ranma, you are, by far, the most perverted human being I have ever met," Jean

commented.

Ranma ignored the comment, "Watch carefully,"

"What kind of martial arts stance is that?" Logan asked, "It looks like Judo,"

"It's no particular stance," Ranma said, "That's the stance she's most

comfortable with,"

"Just curious, you guys or Psylocke know how to fight grappling?" Ranma asked

to no one in particular.

"What do you mean?" Storm asked first.

"Watch then," Ranma said.

Everyone watched carefully.

In the Danger Room, Psylocke patiently waited for Asuka to charge.

Asuka didn't charge. Instead, she slowly inched forward, closing the gap

between them little by little.

When Asuka was just outside striking distance, she stuck an open hand up and

out in front of her, as if she was about to catch a ball being thrown to her.

Psylocke, her mind fixed in battle-mode, believed that was Asuka's initial

attack and tried to react accordingly. Unfortunately, she had no idea how to

react to something like that and was momentarily caught off-guard.

Asuka seized that opportunity to dash forward and dive toward Psylocke's legs.

Psylocke, expecting Asuka to attempt to punch at her, had been ready to

deflect the attack and counter attack. When Asuka did no such thing, she

couldn't react accordingly for a second time.

Before she knew what happened, she found herself falling backwards and onto

the floor, Asuka falling down on top of her.

"What the," Psylocke said.

She gazed upward where she saw Asuka looking down on her, sitting on her

stomach.

"She mounted her!" Ranma shouted in excitement, rooting for Asuka, "She got

her! Finish her off, Asuka!"

Psylocke realizing that she was pinned under Asuka's body weight, even if

Asuka was a light girl, realized she was in a bad predicament and reached out to

push Asuka off her.

She caught sight of Asuka's smile.

Psylocke suddenly found one of her arms seized tightly in both of Asuka's

hands as Asuka pivoted her entire body around, bringing one leg around over

Psylocke's face. A split second later, she found her seized arm extended outward

from her body, locked between Asuka's legs and body.

"She put her in a submission move!" Ranma said, caught up in the excitement,

"It's over! It's over!"

Ranma didn't realize he had his hand on the top of Logan's head and was moving

it back and forth and messing up Logan's head in the process.

"What do you think you're doing?" Logan shouted at Ranma, "If you don't move

you hand, I'll remove it for you, permanently!"

"Oops sorry," Ranma gave a meek smile.

Ranma turned his attention back toward the Danger Room. Psylocke and Asuka

were laying in the middle of that room, perpendicular to one another. Asuka had

one leg resting on Psylocke's chest and the other over her neck, Psylocke's

seized arm extended forward between both legs and held tautly.

"You give up?" Asuka asked, feeling a bit surreal. She couldn't believe she

had placed an armbar on Psylocke like it was second nature. Her body moved as if

it didn't need to ask the brain first.

Psylocke was in a state of shock, Asuka had her in what seemed like an armbar.

And even worse, the armbar seemed like it was applied with textbook precision.

She winced as she could feel slight jolts of pain shooting up her arm from the

tiny bit of pressure being administered hyperextending her elbow.

Asuka applied a bit more pressure, causing even Psylocke to yelp in pain. This

made Asuka feel weird because Psylocke was older that her and it felt odd to be

doing this to her, a woman that she could probably see as an older sister kind

of person if they got to know each other.

"Psylocke," she heard Ranma voice coming from a pair of speakers, "It's over.

You can be stubborn and let her actually dislocate your elbow, but then you'll

be in no condition to go on,"

Psylocke had lost to Rogue in a match earlier. The though of losing a second

time around did not sit well with her. Against Rogue, it was pretty

understandable to lose to her, what with the fact that Rogue was near

invulnerable and had super-human strength. Against Asuka, a normal human with no

special abilities whatsoever, that was a different story.

"You give up?" Asuka asked again.

Psylocke struggled, feeling a burning sensation around her elbow as it was

being hyperextended more and more as Asuka continued to apply pressure.

Asuka wondered what she should do. Any regular person would've given up long

ago. She was scared to give any more pressure or actually risk doing actual

damage to Psylocke's elbow and cause her permanent damage. This was supposed to

be simply a friendly sparring session. Why won't she give up?

All of a sudden, Asuka felt a surge of pain originating from one of her legs

shoot through her body, like that of electricity. The pain was so intense that

it forced Asuka to let go of Psylocke's arm and roll backwards, to get away from

whatever was giving her that pain.

When she tried to stand up, she found herself disoriented, unable to stand up.

She felt like she was in a state of vertigo, resulting in her falling down onto

the floor on her backside.

She tried to get back to her feet but staggered.

She suddenly felt hands coming grab a hold of her, as if to steady her. The

touch was familiar to her.

It was Ranma.

He was by her side steadying her.

"It's okay," she heard Ranma's soft voice, "I've got you,"

"W-what happened?" she asked, still disoriented.

Ranma smirked, "Great match, Asuka,"

"H-how'd I do?" she said.

Ranma cast a glance toward Psylocke who was holding her hurt elbow with her

free arm, an embarrassed look on her face. She had used her powers, something

that she had promised not to do.

"You won," he told Asuka as she slumped into unconsciousness.

"How is she?" Ranma asked.

"Asleep," Beast answered, "She mustn'tve slept much last night because seems

like her body's crashing from all that adrenaline leaving her body and lack of

sleep,"

"Is she gonna be all right?" Ranma asked, concern in his voice.

Beast smiled, "She'll be fine. Heck, Psylocke's actually worse off from that

fight than Asuka,"

Ranma, Beast, Psylocke, and Asuka were in the Med-Lab. Ranma had carried Asuka

to the Med-Lab so Beast could give her a quick checkup to make sure she was

fine. None of them had anything to worry about because the psychic blade that

Psylocke had used to stab Asuka in the leg was only powerful enough to make the

young girl disoriented and nothing else. Unlike a real blade, the psychic one

Psylocke use left no physical marks.

Ranma looked at Psylocke, whom had an embarrassed look on her face as she sat

on one of the free medical bed, holding at her hurt arm. She could move it, but

it felt a bit tender.

He walked over to Psylocke, "Here, lettme look at your elbow,"

"I'm sorry," she said truthfully, "I didn't know what came over me,"

"Don't worry about it," Ranma said, "I'm sure Asuka's would forgive you. You

did what you had to do to get out and accidentally forgot about the rules,"

"That's inexcusable," she said, "She's just a regular girl. God forbid I went

overboard and used a lot more or my powers than need be and actually caused her

real mental damage,"

"You didn't" Ranma said, "That's what matters,"

He rubbed at Psylocke's elbow. When he touched a tender area, she yelped from

the pain that shot up her arm.

"Heh, sorry," he said, "Man, it seems like your pain threshold's a lot higher

than normal. Lots of people would've given up under the pain long ago,"

"Is it dislocated?" Beast asked curiously, "She had her in that armbar pretty

tightly,"

Ranma shook his head, "No. Asuka held back. It must've surprised the heck out

of her considering how much pressure she was applying and not hearing Psylocke

saying she gives up,"

Gently placing one hand on her shoulder to hold her stationary, he used his

free hand to grab her forearm and give it a twist. A popping sound emerged from

her shoulder. He then twisted the forearm the other way, the sound of a pop

emerging from her elbow this time around.

"Seems like Asuka had you in a modified-armbar," Ranma chuckled, "If she

applied a bit more pressure, your shoulder would've been dislocated at the exact

same time as your elbow,"

Psylocke rubbed at her shoulder, "My shoulder? But it didn't feel like my

shoulder was getting cranked like my arm was,"

She looked at her arm and moved it around a few times. It felt like new. The

tenderness she was feeling seemed all but a memory now.

"Well it was," Ranma said, "You don't realize it because you were probably

focusing too much on the pain in your elbow. You don't want to have that move

applied on fully,"

Psylocke was silent.

"I guess Psylocke was lucky she used her powers to get Asuka to stop, huh?"

Beast asked.

Ranma said, "Yep. In a fair fight, the winner would've easily been Asuka

whether Psylocke cared to acknowledge it or now,"

"In a real fight, you can't expect everyone to fight fair," Beast commented.

"In a real fight, Asuka wouldn'tve paused in applying that modified-armbar to

see if her opponent wanted to give up," Ranma added.

Beast said as we went over to Asuka to check her blood pressure, "Well, it

seems you've got me there,"

Ranma turned Psylocke and noticed something.

"Heh, you're hanging out," he grinned.

"Huh?" she asked.

She looked down and noticed that one of her breasts were hanging out the front

of her dogi. She had a bra on so it wasn't as embarrassing had she not. She

quickly covered herself up before Beast turned around and got an eyeful as well.

"Heh, it seems like I'm always at the right time and at the right place all

the time," Ranma chuckled.

Psylocke narrowed her eyes at him but said nothing. If she thought about it,

Ranma did nothing wrong per say. It was nice that he actually mentioned it to

her that she was a tad bit overexposed.

She excused herself, hopping off the table and heading for the door.

"I'm going to take a shower now. Thanks for your help, Ranma,"

"No prob," Ranma grinned.

Logan was walking down the hallway as he recounted the amount of money he had

a third time. The money Logan came by was from whatever blood money he was paid

to kill criminals. Sure, other criminals would hire him to do the deed, but it

didn't bother him. Killing a criminal for money meant one less criminal to have

to worry about. It wasn't like he was ever going to have trouble sleeping doing

something like that anyway.

"Strange, I could've sworn I had more money," he commented to himself. He was

very sure that he was missing some money but couldn't tell why.

Ranma was on his way toward his room but paused when he noticed Logan looked a

bit confused.

"Hey, Logan," Ranma greeted him, "Jus' the person I was lookin' for,"

Logan just grunted to let Ranma know he acknowledges his presence. He

continued to count the money he had.

"How's the kid?" Logan asked. He didn't know much about Asuka but he figured

he'd ask.

"She's fine," Ranma said, "No damage was done to her mentally or physically.

She didn't sleep much and I guess the battle stress got to her and now she's

sleeping,"

"Glad t'hear the kid's fine," Logan said, "Whatcha lookin' fer me for?"

Ranma nudged at Logan, grinning, "I saw Psylocke's breasts,"

Logan gave him a weird look. What kind of conversation was this? Was Ranma

trying to indulge in chit chat because he seriously wasn't interested.

"You don't get out much, huh, bub?" Logan started walking away.

Ranma followed, "I only said that to get to the point,"

"And that bein'?" Logan asked, turning toward him.

"She was wearing a bra," Ranma said, "I think her panties are the same color.

That should be the case because the personality would match based on that color.

However, I have no idea if it's a thong or g-string or whatever. That's what's

important,"

Logan suddenly realized exactly where Ranma was getting at.

"Guess who's going to help me find out because he lost a bet with me?" Ranma

grinned.

"Waitaminute, you mean now?" Logan said, taking a step back, "What about

Beast?"

"He's got a 'get out of jail free card' for this one," Ranma said, "He's

watching over Asuka in the Med-Lab until she wakes up,"

"Wait, hold up, I can do that, too," Logan said.

"Are you there? No?" Ranma chuckled, "Why? Because only one person is needed,"

Logan suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, started feeling nervous, "What

do you plan on doing?"

"Psylocke said she was going to go get changed," Ranma said, "Where's her

bedroom? A quick peep here will reveal to us the truth and we'll be out of here

before she realizes she's been peeped on,"

"This is crazy," Logan said.

"Y'got that right," Ranma said.

Logan gritted his teeth, "Fine. What d'ya want me to do?"

"Psylocke's taking a shower now, that means she's not in her room..."

Logan muttered under his breath as looked around Psylocke's bedroom. The room

was well furnished and had a cozy feel to it. The light was on, indicating that

Psylocke had stopped off at her room before heading to the lockers to take her

shower.

What the hell am I in here and not Ranma, Logan wondered. Why does he get to

stand outside and be the lookout?

"Because you can use your heightened senses to sniff out her panties," Ranma

had said, "That didn't come out right. It makes it sound much much much much

much more perverted than need be. Y'know what I mean,"

Logan couldn't believe what he was doing. He should have said he couldn't

since he wouldn't know what he would be trying to sniff out. The whole room

smelled of Psylocke so he would not be able to truly pinpoint a certain scent.

Why didn't he say that?

Logan noticed a dresser drawer over by the corner of the room. It was the only

dresser drawer so it had to contain what Ranma was looking for, and when Logan

needed to find out so he could get out upholding his end of the wager as soon as

possible before getting caught.

As he started checking through the drawers, he felt like he was doing

something truly bad and it made him feel extremely guilty. He felt less guilty

killing people.

The thing that made him feel somewhat better was that he was only looking for

to see what kind of panties Psylocke wore. It wasn't like he was expected to

steal it or such.

After a minute, he found the drawer containing the panties. For some odd

reason, he felt inclined to steal one, but he couldn't tell why. Then again, it

could be because he is a guy, afterall.

Looking at the 'treasure trove', a term Ranma called it for this operation,

Logan easily noticed Psylocke seemed to have a thing for extremely sexy looking

panties that needed to be tied around the waist to stay on. There were no

elastic straps like he figured there would be.

"Whoa," Logan couldn't help but say. This was definitely something he had

never seen of her before.

He quickly shook his head. What the hell was wrong with him? He was in the

danger zone and needed to get out. If it weren't for Ranma, he would never be

doing this. Something like this was something he never ever believed he would be

doing. This was so uncharacteristic of him. He was the best as what he does, and

that was fighting. How the hell did he find himself in a situation trying to

find out what kind of panties Psylocke wore?

Logan, done with his investigation, headed for the door.

Outside, Ranma spotted Psylocke emerge from the locker room and come walking

down the hallway toward him. She was wearing a robe around her waist as she was

drying her hair with another towel.

"Shit, she's coming down the hall," Ranma whispered loudly, "Go out through

the window. She'll see you if you come out the door,"

Logan quickly headed over to the window. For some reason, he felt this odd

sense of doom fall over him when he noticed that there were several potted

plants resting on the windowsill.

He needed to make a stealthy escape, but not if it meant disturbing those

potted plants. He needed to gently move them aside, climb outside, and then put

those plant back in its place. That way, Psylocke would not be suspicious as to

what happened in her room if she noticed her plants were mysteriously missing

had Logan decided to just jump on the window and bring those plants out with

him.

"You have to distract her," Logan whispered loudly.

"Gotcha," Ranma replied.

Psylocke was a bit surprised to see Ranma waiting outside her bedroom when she

was done with her shower. It also made her feel a bit self-conscious because she

was completely naked save for the towel around her waist. Because her bedroom

door was so close to the women's locker room, she usually just walked the short

distance from the locker room to her bedroom where she would get changed in

there instead of the locker room like most girls.

"Hey, Psylocke," Ranma said.

"Hi, Ranma," she said, "Were you waiting for me or something?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Just wait here for a second," she said, reaching for the doorknob, "I'll get

dressed and by right out,"

"You smell nice," Ranma said, thinking of whatever he could think of to buy

Logan the time to escape.

Psylocke blushed slightly, "Thank you,"

She held the door open but turned had turn to face him and smile, her back

toward the room, completely unaware of Logan slowly trying to move her potted

plant toward the side so he could climb out.

Ranma noticed Logan still in the room trying to get out without leaving behind

any evidence of his presence.

"I came here to ask to something," he said.

"What is it?" she asked, curious.

Ranma tried to think of something to ask her.

"Would you like to go out to dinner tonight?" he asked from out of the blue.

"W-what?" Psylocke was not expecting that question.

Ranma seemed to have realized that he probably asked the wrong kind of

question to keep her distracted because now there was no going back.

"Yeah, like a date," he said, "What do you think?"

"I-I don't know what to say," she blushed, still in a state of shock.

"You wouldn't happen to be seeing anyone right now, would you?" he asked,

hopeful that she was. That way, he could avoid having to go on a date with her.

Of course, it wasn't that he really didn't want to go on a date with her. It was

because it would definitely create complications.

Psylocke shook her head, "No, I'm not seeing anyone,"

"Cool, that's good to hear," Ranma smiled, hiding his disappointment, "Ever

since I got here, I noticed you. I know we don't know each other that well, but

I figured we can try and change that. What do you think?"

"I'd like that," she said, smiling warmly, "And I have noticed you, too. I

didn't really know what to think about you and Asuka though,"

"She's a really good friend of mine," Ranma said, "I originally wanted to come

here to get the adamantium on my own. At the last minute she asked if she could

tag along and I said yes. No, we aren't together,"

"So you're not seeing anyone either?" she asked.

"If I was, would I be asking you?" he grinned.

Psylocke was embarrassed that she asked something like that, "H-ha, y-you're

right. Stupid me for not thinking,"

The two of them laughed.

Ranma glanced over Psylocke's shoulder and noticed that Logan was standing

still, watching them. It seemed that when he heard Ranma ask her out, he had

stopped what he was doing to listen in, forgetting the predicament he was in.

Ranma and Logan made eye contact.

If you don't get out of that room now, your super healing powers and,

adamantium skeleton will only doom you to suffering longer, was the silent

message that Ranma seemed to send Logan.

Logan seemed to suddenly realized what was going on and proceeded to move the

plants aside.

"So tell me something about yourself," he asked.

"Sure, in a bit, let me go get dressed first though," she said.

"What, are you embarrassed?" Ranma said, "That towel looks really good on you.

Makes you looks really sexy,"

"Thank you, Ranma," she said, blushing again, giggling in a way that reminding

him of a young schoolgirl.

Ranma believed he was so deep in a pile of shit that he might as well just dig

deeper and hope he could dig through to the other side and make it out of this

intact.

"Tell me a bit about your self," he asked, "I betcha you lead a very

interesting life,"

"I guess you can say that," she smiled warmly, "How about you?"

"Pretty interesting, too," he replied, "I've been to many worlds. I must say,

meeting you definitely made visiting this world all the more interesting,"

"Ah, what a cheesy come-on line," Psylocke said, giving Ranma's arm a playful

punch.

Ranma grinned, "Is it working?"

Psylocke giggled, "Maybe,"

They shared a warm laugh together again.

"Wow, I've been wrong about you," she stated, wiping a tear of laughter from

her eyes, "I had you pegged all wrong,"

"Oh? What do you mean by that?" he asked, interested.

"I, actually, all of us, thought you were some chauvinistic guy that seemed

prone to sticking his foot in his mouth and that it must be so exasperating for

Asuka would hang around someone like you," she said, "No offense,"

"None taken," he said, jokingly mimicking the motions of an invisible dagger

stabbing at his heart.

"But from where I stand," Psylocke smiled, "I can see that there's a side to

you that none of us seems to have noticed, at least not until now. I guess this

is the said Asuka seems to know and like that makes her willing to tag along

with you,"

"Thanks," Ranma said, "I'm glad you were willing to give me the benefit of the

doubt. So, what do you think of this side? I'm more like this y'know,"

Psylocke took step forward, smiling seductively, bringing a her hand up and

trailing a finger down the side of his face, pausing at his lips.

"I like it," she smiled.

Ranma glanced past Psylocke where he noticed Logan, now outside the window,

placing the last of the plants back on the windowsill. They made eye contact

briefly, Logan silently saying something along the lines of 'I'm in the clear.

Job well done'.

"Say, would you like to join me in my room? You can watch while I get

dressed?" she asked.

Ranma said, "No thanks,"

This shocked the hell out of Psylocke, "N-no?"

Ranma began walking away, "I gotta go now. I'll talk to you later,"

Psylocke looked dumbfounded.

Ranma suddenly remembered what he had said, "Um, oh yeah, I'll be at your room

tonight for dinner. Let's make it eight-thirty, how's that? Let's go get some

fast food. My treat. Talk to you in later,"

Ranma was long gone by the time Psylocke was able to recover from her shock

and say something.

"What the heck just happened here?"

Ranma entered the War Room where Logan was. That was their assigned rendezvous

place after their 'mission'.

Logan was rubbing his shoulder when Ranma entered.

"What happened, you hurt yourself?" Ranma asked.

"I'll live," Logan said. He ended up falling out to the window and landing on

his shoulder on the ground hard. He felt a bit tender around the shoulder but

knew the pain would be completely gone in a few minutes.

"So, what didja find out?" Ranma asked, leaning against a nearby wall.

"First off, I'm out," Logan said, "Consider my end of the bargain upheld,"

"Hey-" Ranma said.

"Tough," Logan said, "Jean and Storm are the only two remaining to be

'investigated' as you call it. I have no intention of getting caught doing this,

let alone by either of those two,"

Ranma grinned, "I understand. What you went through scared you so shitless.

Your heart can't handle the pressure,"

"Nice try, bub," Logan said, leaning back in his chair, "I ain't scared of

anythin', but even I know there're lines that should nev'r be crossed. I learn'd

I crossed it back there,"

Ranma sighed, "I'm disappointed in you, Logan. I figured you were fearless,

what with your mutant abilities and that adamantium skeletal structure,"

"I'm the best at what I do, bub. There's no question about it," Logan sneered,

"And that's fighting. What you had me do is not fighting,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Hm, for something like this, the best person for

the job wouldn't be you, it'd be someone like Nightcrawler,"

Logan said, "Perhaps, but he isn't here. He's takin' some time off to visit an

old friend of his,"

"He isn't around? Damn," Ranma said, "That's a shame. Oh well, easy come, easy

go. So, whatcha find out in Psylocke's room?"

"It's one 'o those string things," Logan said.

"A g-string?" Ranma asked, "A thong?"

"No, it's one of those ones where you tie the string," Logan answered, feeling

weird discussing Psylocke's panties with Ranma, "It's one 'o those things that

don't have those elastic bands,"

"Ooh, really?" Ranma asked.

"What does it mean?" Logan asked, really interested in hearing about what

Ranma read. Beast had relayed the information about what Ranma said about

Rogue's personality and it was very accurate. Would the information about

Psylocke's personality be accurate too?

Ranma thought for a moment about what he read.

He said, "The article said that a person that wears those kinda panties tend

to be act aloof and confident, which is sometimes mistaken for arrogance, at the

same time. Wearer's aloofness hides intelligence. Stern and even ruthless, the

wearer doesn't like to lose,"

Wow, that actually sounds like Psylocke's personality, Logan thought.

"That's how the wearer is usually viewed and wishes to be viewed," Ranma

continued, still recalling what he read, "Deep down inside, the wearer wants to

be silly and let loose from time to time, but with good reason. Likes to laugh

and learn new things. Likes having a bit of randomness in her life and to be

kept on her toes guessing at what's going to happen next. Likes fashion and

usually has an eye for what's considered 'in'. Loves receiving compliments and

considers laughter and humor key elements to a potential relationship.

Ranma realized something, "Aw, jeez, why do I hafta find this out about her

now, after I made her crack up several times?"

"Is that all?" Logan asked, really wondering if that's Psylocke's inner

personality. She really liked to laugh? That came as a surprise to hear. He

rarely ever saw her laugh. But then again, if he really thought about it, most

of the X-Men could use a bit of a sense of humor, even himself.

"No, there's more," Ranma continued to recall what he read, "Likes to eat

healthy and keep in shape. Most likely either jogging or swimming. Knows what

she wants when and can be very persistent about it when need be. That's about

it,"

"That's interesting," Logan said, "Whether or not it's actually Psylocke, I'm

not too sure. I've never really seen her joking around. She also seemed the kind

of person that likes a sense of control in her life, not 'randomness' as you

mentioned. 'Wants to act silly'? That sounds completely unlike Psylocke,"

Ranma shrugged, "I guess the article seemed only half right,"

"Seems so," Logan said.

Ranma headed for the door, "I'm gonna go tell Beast. Figure he might be

interested. He'll probably log what found out and put it in some kind character

profile of X-Men members if something like that exist. After I tell him, I guess

I gotta get ready to take Psylocke out on that date when I asked her out as a

way of keeping her distracted while you could escape, Logan,"

"Wasn't my fault you asked her that," Logan said, feeling no sympathy for

Ranma, "Yer the one that said to her,"

Ranma shrugged, "Ah, it won't be all that bad. I'll just act like an asshole

and get her to wish she never accepted going on a date with me and break the

date. I accidentally asked her out and I don't want her to think anything of it.

The quicker I end it, the better,"

Logan couldn't help but chuckle. Any hot-blooded male would lust at the

thought of being able to go on a date with Psylocke. Ranma, on the other hand,

seemed to be the exact opposite. Ranma was quite a unique individual that seemed

to walk to the beat of his own drum. Or then again, perhaps he wasn't the

sharpest pencil in the box.

"So, you're going on a date with Psylocke," Logan commented, "What's so wrong

with that?"

Ranma muttered, "What are you talking about, 'what's wrong with that?'?" I

took one for the team so that you can get out undetected. Now I hafta go out

with Psylocke on a date,"

Logan fell out of his seat.

Ranma smirked.

He headed for the door, "Well, talk to ya later, Logan. I'll find a way to

deal with this. Thanks for your help,"

"Hey," Logan said, getting up to his feet, dusting some dust from his clothes.

"What?" Ranma asked.

"I'll help y'out with the date," Logan said, feeling he should help out

somehow.

"How?" Ranma asked, "What, you're gonna sabotage it? That could work,"

"No, nothing like that," Logan waved a dismissive hand.

"Then how can you help me?" Ranma asked.

Logan reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. He pulled out

several large bills from the wad and held it out for Ranma to take.

"Here," Logan said, "A present, from me. For yer date. Consider yerself really

lucky cuz I don't give out presents. Go have a good time,"

Logan felt a somewhat obligated to help Ranma out in some way.

Ranma looked at the bills but didn't take it.

"Nah, no thanks," he said, "I've got plenty,"

"You do?" Logan asked.

Ranma grinned.

"Yeah, I stole some from you a while back to buy that six-pack of beer for

that bet you won. I still have money left over,"

Logan's claws shot out from his fists as he sneered.

"I'm going to kill you,"

new stuff 7/16

Ranma was on his way toward his bedroom from the War Room when he bumped into

Rogue in the hallways. He still had some time to pass and figured he go take a

shower and maybe take a quick nap.

"Hi, Rogue," Ranma smiled warmly.

Rogue just made a inaudible grunting noise, giving obvious indication that she

didn't care to talk to him.

"Still angry at me?" he asked, giving her a meek smile.

"What d'ya think?" she asked coldly.

Ranma tried to recall what he said to Beast about the article he had read

about the kind of personality that Rogue most likely possessed.

'The wearer subconsciously wonders why not as many people compliment them on

how good they look. They wonder if there's something wrong with the way they

look. The wearer is still a bit confused on who she is and yearns for human

touch but seems to be bothered by something that is preventing her. It says the

wearer's very strong willed and usually does things before thinking things

through. And the funny thing is that deep down inside, the wearer wants

guidance, like a strong man or fatherly figure in her life to acknowledge what

she does and her existence,'

"I like your accent," he said, "Where're you from?"

"Ah don't think that's any concern of yers," she retorted.

Ranma held his hands up defensively, "All right. I'm sorry. Jeez, I was jus'

trying to make some conversation with ya. If I knew you were going to bite my

head off, I wouldn'tve bothered even saying hi,"

Rogue thought about it for a moment and believed she was a bit harsh. But then

again, didn't she have a right to be, after what Ranma did to embarrass her.

Even if it had been in a joking matter, he tried to pull her pants off.

"I didn't realize you were still holding a grudge with me," he commented.

"And why shouldn't I holda grudge?" she asked.

Ranma thought about it for a moment, "Hm, I guess you have a point. I was

being a jerk, huh?"

Rogue was surprised at the comment. She figured Ranma would deny he did

anything wrong. To be able to see that you did something wrong and even

acknowledge it takes character, something she didn't believe Ranma had.

Ranma extended his hand, "Can we let bygones be bygones and start all over?"

She regarded his hand for a moment. There was no reason not to accept his

truce. What was done is done and they should move on. Besides, she was a good

enough person to forgive someone, even if the incident had been damn

embarrassing.

"All right, fine," Rogue extended her hand and shook Ranma's.

Figuring she should let Ranma know she wasn't one to be trifled with a second

time, she gave Ranma's hand a fairly tight grip, enough for him to notice her

superhuman strength.

Ranma didn't notice Rogues extra tight handshake but did notice her gloved

hand.

"How come you wear gloves?" he asked.

Rogue gave him an confused look, figuring he should have at least felt

something in her handshake.

"Um, Ah wear 'em cause Ah hafta wear 'em," she said, composing herself. Maybe

Ranma was too stupid to know that his hand was supposed to hurt. Either that or

one of his specials was near invulnerability like hers.

"Why so?" he asked.

Figuring there was no harm in telling him, "My special powers,"

"I still don't understand," he scratched his head.

"It's one of ma special powers," she stated, "If Ah ever come in contact with

someone, mutant or non-mutant, Ah involuntarily absorb their powers. It

temp'rarily get their powers for a short time. How long it lasts depends on how

long I hold on. Usually, when I let go, my opponent is either left really weak

or unconscious,"

Ranma's eyes widened, "Really?"

The way Ranma looked as he said it made her a bit worried. He seemed very

excited to hear that.

"Hinako-sensei!" he grinned, "You're like Hinako-sensei,"

"'Scuse me?"

"When I use to be in high school, there's this teacher I had named Hinako-

sensei," he said, "Every day, she would try and suck me dry,"

"W-what?" Rogue asked.

"Every day she would do that," Ranma said, "Not one day wouldn't go by without

her trying get her hands on me. She had this trick where she-"

"That's enough, Ah don't wanna hear it," Rogue quickly said. She was shocked

at the information Ranma was divulging of himself. She didn't want to hear about

some tramp high school teacher.

"What?" he asked, "Why not?"

"Whatcha think?" Rogue said, "Ah don't wanna hear about somethin' like that.

Ah don't wanna hear about sexual exploits when y'were a high school student,"

"Huh?" Ranma was truly confused, "What heck does sexual exploits hafta do

about it? I was just talking about how I had a teacher that would suck-"

Ranma's eyes widened as he realized what Rogue was thinking.

"No! Not like that!" Ranma said, "Why dontcha lettme tell you my story? You're

misunderstanding what I'm trying to tell you,"

"Ah'm not interested in whatcha got to say," Rogue began walking away.

"She used to 'suck my battle aura'," Ranma said, "And NO, 'battle aura' is not

what they call IT those days. Then again, that's a cool name to call it. Man,

that'd be damn cool name to call a man's you-know-what, a 'Battle Aura'.

Rogue was not amused and kept walking away.

"Anyway, every time she would absorb my battle aura which usually left me

basically weak as a baby," he trailed behind her, "She would then actually use

what she absorbed against me. Basically, she she's kinda like you. She takes my

power and uses it against me,"

Rogue shrugged, "So what, she's similar to me. What do Ah care,"

Ranma smiled, "For nostalgia sake, can you absorb my power?"

"Ah will do no such thing!" Rogue said, shocked at what she was hearing. Ranma

was some kind of masochist.

"Don't worry, it's not like you're gonna actually harm me if that's the case,"

Ranma said, "I'm just curious as to if it feels the same, for nostalgia case,"

"Please?" Ranma asked.

"No,"

"You said you'll absorb my powers," Ranma said, "Wouldn't you like some of it?

Think of it, it'll make saving lives much easier. You can resurrect people and

such. Your will is all you need. You want something done, just use your will to

get it done,"

Rogue thought about it for a moment. The idea of having some of his powers

sounded very tempting. She had been flabbergasted seeing Ranma do what he did.

Jean had commented to her that those children had been dead when they were

unearthed. Ranma had the power of resurrection, probably what most would

consider the most powerful and invaluable power to possess. And not only that,

it seemed like using that power did not cause any strain on him to do so.

She quickly banished the thought. As tempting as it was, to have some of his

powers and use it for good and help out others, she would also lose a bit of

herself since she would also be absorbing his memories and psyche.

"And jus' what makes ya think Ah would use those powers for good?" Rogue

asked, smirking.

Ranma leaned forward and looked deeply into her eyes.

After a second, he leaned back, as if satisfied with what he saw, "I dunno,

just a hunch,"

Rogue seems skeptic on how Ranma could seem so confident to base a decision on

a mere hunch.

"Besides, even if you do have my powers, you think you'll be unbeatable?"

Ranma grinned like an idiot, "Ha! You'll hafta deal with me,"

Rogue snickered. Ranma's personality was definitely unique.

"For yer inf'rmation, getting' yer powers ain't all," Rogue said, "Ah also

absorb yer memories, psyche, and personality permanently,"

"I'm not worried," Ranma said, "The dark side of my psyche can only reside

within me so you don't hafta worry about that side of me taking over you,"

Rogue regarded him curious, "What d'ya mean by that?"

"There's two version of me," Ranma said, "There's the version of me you see

now, the awesome version,"

Rogue narrowed her eyes.

"And then there's the other version of me," Ranma said, "The side no one wants

to mess with,"

"How so?" she asked, interested in what he has to say.

"Well, it took three God to kill him," Ranma said, "Urd is the current God.

She's as powerful as powerful can be. Nothing in existence is more powerful.

Basically, it took three God, all with her exact powers, to kill me...or should

I say to bad version of me,"

"I've heard some tall tales in my life, but this is by far, the tallest one

I've ever heard," Rogue said laughing, "Are y'telling me that it takes three

God, not 'god' but 'God', with a capital 'G', to take you down?"

Ranma smirked, "It takes three to take the other version of me down. I have no

idea how many it would take to take me down,"

Rogue said nothing.

Ranma said, "He creeps me out,"

"Because he's yer equal in ev'ry sense of the way?" Rogue asked.

"In power and skill, yep," Ranma said, "But his main goal is death, to die?"

"W-what? Did Ah hear ya correctly, his main goal is death, to die?" Rogue

asked.

"Yep," Ranma said, "But here's the dilemma, just how do you expect to kill a

guy that just won't die? He can't commit suicide or nothing. So what's his best

course of action? To kill Urd and cease all of existence as well has his own,"

Rogue gulped.

Ranma laughed, "But we don't hafta worry about that because even if you did

get some of my psyche, you don't won't get the 'nasty' aspect of it. Heck,

that's why two of my friends never became like what he was but got his powers,"

"So yer're tryin' to tell me that that guy is a part of ya, right now?" Rogue

asked.

Ranma nodded, "Yep,"

"Should we be worried that he might get out?" Rogue asked.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Urd said she had taken precautions to take him

down should he ever get out,"

"And what kinda precaution is that?" she asked.

"She created an entire universe to take arms against him," he said, shrugging,

"She said at the moment, that universe's just minding its own business and its

inhabitants are unaware of its future purpose. But when the time comes, should

that other version of myself show up, she'll go to that universe and gather

everyone, I mean everyone, be it 'good, bad, alien, neutral, cosmic, mystic,

magical' as she mentioned, there were more definitions of the beings on that

universe but I can't remember 'em all. Anyway, she said she'd bring everyone

together to form basically one huge army to fight him and hopefully slow him

down,"

"S-slow him down?" Rogue said, "If you're talkin' about an entire universe of

being up against just one person, surely they'd be able to stop him,"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. They'll only be there to slow him down, so she

could make the killing blow. Only she can make the killing blow. Only God can

kill God,"

Rogue was silent.

Ranma laughed, "Crazy, huh?"

"Jus' curious, ya said that person is some alternate version of ya, right?"

Rogue said, "Isn't there some way to get ridda that version so ya don't turn

into him?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. It's a damn shame Urd says I will become him.

It'd be awesome if we separate and I hafta fight him. Now that would be a battle

for the ages. Dunno if I'll win though. Might give him a run for his money

though, provided I have the powers I have now,"

"Wait, yer saying that ya believe ya can give this alternate version of

yerself a run for his money," Rogue asked, "And this is the version of you that

this Urd person expects to have an entire universe go to arms and fight against

jus' to slow him down, let alone kill him?"

Ranma grinned.

Rogue began walking away, rubbing her temples, "Ah'm gonna go take a nap now.

This stuff's giving me a headache,"

"Oh, if I press your 'Big-O' pressure point, it'll go right away," Ranma

commented.

Ranma laughed, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if this was the universe Urd created

to slow him down?"

Rogue turned toward Ranma, "What's so funny 'bout that? Ah don't like the

thought of bein' part of some God's 'pawn' to be sent out to fight unimaginable

odds and only expected to jus' slow someone down so she could make a killin'

blow,"

"But you wouldn't exist had she not created you for that purpose," Ranma

commented.

"Still," Rogue said. She couldn't help but wonder which way was better, to

exist or not at all. After a second, she realized to exist was far better than

to never have existed at all.

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Enough about that stuff. I don't like talking

about it anyway,"

"You're th'one that brought it up," Rogue stated.

"Okay, let's talk about something else, then," Ranma said.

"Like what?" she wondered why she was still standing there talking to him in

the first place. But then again, she found out some information about that that

was very shocking. She should mention this to the others. They would definitely

like to hear this.

He regarded her for a moment, trying to think of something right to say.

"Whatcha starin' at me for?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I saw your sparring match against Psylocke earlier," he began.

"I know, we passed each other in the Danger Room," she said.

"I like the way you fight," he said, "You're a brawler. Heh, no form of

fighting is quite as fun as brawling. That's my belief,"

Rogue smirked at him, "I agree,"

Ranma regarded her for a moment which made her somewhat suspicious.

"What?" she asked impatiently.

"Does your back ache?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

Rogue wondered how the conversation suddenly moved onto if her back aches.

"From where I stand, your back's a bit outta alignment," he said.

"What? Ma back is jus' fine," she said, "It's not outta alignment as ya so

say,"

"How do you know?" Ranma said, "It's not like you can see your own back. Not

unless you have some special powers where your spirit can leave your body or

something,"

Ranma was silent.

"Y'fly, right?" he asked, "It seems like your way of flying's probably very

intense. Probably from stop and go, like take off and landings,"

"Okay, now how'd y'go 'n figure somethin' like that out jus' from lookin' at

me?" she had to ask.

"Am I right?" he asked.

"Well, ma flyin' is intense, yes," she stated, "That still don't explain how-"

"From the way you stand," Ranma said, "That seems like your natural standing

posture. The weight of your body's distributed oddly because of the misalignment

which is why your natural standing position is a bit off, it subconsciously

compensates for that misalignment,"

"Get outta here," Rogue said.

Ranma shrugged, "Don't bother me none. Figure I'd point it out to ya. If you

want, I can fix that right up,"

"How?" she asked, skeptic.

"I can crack your back," he said, "I know chiropractic techniques,"

She said nothing.

"You want my help or not?" he asked, "I did it for Psylocke and she said it

made her feel much better,"

Rogue remembered Psylocke mentioning that. She had commented that it felt like

'pleasure you wouldn't believe'. That comment definitely piqued her interest.

Maybe she should give it a try. It wasn't as if she had anything to lose.

"Fine," she said, "What should I do?"

"Extend your right arm toward me," Ranma said.

Rogue did as she was told, extending her arm toward Ranma for him to take.

When he did, she suddenly yelped in surprised as Ranma moved around her,

cranking her arm behind her back.

"W-what are you doing?" she asked in surprise, shocked at how quickly Ranma

had somehow managed get behind her.

A loud snap came from her shoulder as he cranked it back, pushing upward hard

enough that both her feet left the floor.

Oh my god, he just dislocated my shoulder, Rogue thought. This was because,

based on the way her arm was cranked, that was the only possible explanation,

especially after hearing such a blood-wrenching snap.

Before she even has a chance to gather her thoughts and get ready to feel the

wave of pain that would be following having her shoulder dislocated, she felt

her arm falling limply to her side as her other arm was grabbed tightly.

Another loud snap could be heard as Ranma did the exact same thing to it,

cranking it backwards at an extremely awkward looking angle. When he let go, her

arm fell limply down to her side, as if her arms were now useless, both her

shoulders dislocated or perhaps shattered beyond repair.

"Almost done," she heard Ranma say.

She then felt his hand grabbed her head from behind, one hand under her chin

and the other on one side of her head.

Her eyes widened as the thought of having a person's hand on her head in that

position only meant one thing. Her thoughts were confirmed when her head was

viciously cranked toward one direction so far that she momentarily saw herself

actually looking directly backwards as she stood facing forward, seeing her

killer's face before her head seemed to pop back forward. Her head was then

cranked in the other direction, she seeing Ranma a second time, him smirking

like a man that had actually managed to fool her into believing his words and

his willingness to help her out.

Her body felt numb and seemed unable to move. All she could do was think in

shock of how she had been chit chatting with Ranma, actually believing he was on

her world to retrieve some adamantium, and suddenly finding out the hard way

that he was some kind of spy sent by some evil organization to infiltrate the X-

Men and get their trust so he could kill them in horrible fashion.

"One more, and it'll be done," she heard.

She felt one of Ranma's hand trail down her back, his fingers giving her a

tickling sensation as his other hand held her head by the chin. Something

suddenly dawned on her, if her neck was broken, which she believed obvious was,

what with the fact that the snapping noises she heard were that of breaking

bones and vertebrae, how was she able to feel the tingling sensation of Ranma's

hand on her back? Her spinal cord should be severed.

She suddenly felt Ranma's hand stop on the small of her back. A second later,

she felt him strike at that area.

All of a sudden, this explosive wave of pleasure, or some sensation she

couldn't quite describe, enveloped her body, beginning from her back and

spreading out to all her appendages.

The only thing that crossed her mind was that if this was how death truly

felt, it was definitely a good feeling, death. If people knew death felt this

good, suicide might actually be very common.

The sensations lasted for several seconds as her body seemed to become ridged

from the pleasure before she finally slumped backward as if in a state of

exhaustion. She felt Ranma's hands grab her from behind and gently guide her

down into a sitting position on the floor.

Completely disoriented from the sensations, Rogue felt like she had somehow

left her body. She was confused and had no real idea where she was.

Ranma's, her killer's, face popped right in front of her.

"Y'okay?" he asked.

Rogue was at a loss of words. She was dead, right? How come she was still able

to see? Wait, maybe she was she some kind of spirit doomed to wander the world

for all of eternity. That was why she was able to see her killer.

Ranma waved a hand in front of her, "Hello? Y'there, Rogue?"

"W-w-what happened?" she asked, surprised to be able to hear her own words.

"Kinda zonked out there for a sec," Ranma chuckled, "Don't worry, it only

lasts a second. You should be back on your feet in a second,"

Rogue looked at Ranma, "Ranma?"

"Hm?" he asked.

There was a moment of awkward silence as she tried to gather her thoughts.

Ranma had killed her. She should be feeling great rage toward him. She needed to

avenge her own death before she passed on into the spirit world.

"I'll kill you!" she shouted, reacting up with both arms and grabbing toward

Ranma.

"Whoa there," Ranma leaned back as Rogue missed grabbing him and ended up

falling forward onto her hands, "If I knew you were gonna react like that to

someone helping you out, I'd hate to wonder how you'd react to someone trying to

hurt you,"

Rogue looked at her hands and noticed she could feel the floor beneath her

hands. She took off one of her gloves and touched the floor in front of her. It

felt cold to her touch. How was she able to feel if she was dead?

"A-am I dead?" she asked to no on in particular.

"Dead? Are you crazy?" she heard Ranma say, "All I did was crack a few of your

joints,"

"I'm alive," she asked, skeptic.

"Yeah," he said, a bit confused, "What makes you think you're dead? Oh yeah,

you should be able to get up now,"

Rogue realized she had control of her legs and was actually able to get up to

her feet. She staggered once, still a bit disoriented.

Ranma reached out and grabbed her hand to keep her from falling, surprised

that it was taking Rogue longer than he expected to get her bearings. All he did

was crack her back and such. It only takes a few seconds to recover.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I cracked a few of your joints," he said, "Nothing special. Same thing I did

to Psylocke,"

Was this what she felt, Rogue thought. Psylocke was right when she commented

how it felt like 'pleasure you wouldn't believe'. It sure felt like pleasure she

didn't believe was possible of being felt.

"Ya didn't kill me?" she asked.

Ranma laughed, "No. Oh, I get it. You thought I was murdering you. Hm, I guess

I should've warned you that the snapping should come as a surprise. I think

Psylocke believed that too, that I was doing stuff like dislocating her

shoulders and breaking her neck and such,"

Rogue looked up toward Ranma, this huge blush on her cheeks. She felt like she

had done something wrong. There must be something wrong to feel something so

good. Sensations like that felt actually sinful.

"You should feel much better now," Ranma said, "If you ain't busy, head down

to the Danger Room and practice for a bit and see how your data comes out. You

can compare it to your previous data,"

Rogue looked at Ranma's hand and noticed her ungloved one in his.

She quickly pulled her hand away, using her other hand to cover over it.

"I was only holding your hand because I thought you were gonna fall," Ranma

said, "No need to get all embarrassed and think we were holding hands like some

couple or anything,"

Rogue looked at Ranma and then at her hand.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"C-can you hold your hand out for me?" she asked.

Ranma shrugged and did as he was asked.

Rogue tapped his hand, pulling it back quickly as if she was touching a hot

stove.

"Did you feel that?" she asked.

"Did I feel you touch me? Yeah, why?" he asked.

She reached out again and touched his hand, a little bit longer this time.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to absorb my powers?" Ranma realized, "I sure don't

feel like anything's bein' absorbed from me. You said doing so usually makes the

person you're touching pass out, right?"

"A-Ah can touch ya," Rogue said, feeling a bit surreal, "It seems like ma

powers have no effect on ya,"

Ranma seemed disappointed, "Damn, and here I was hoping I'd be reminded of

when I was in high school,"

Rogue reached up and ran her fingers through Ranma's hair.

"Yo, whatcha doing?" he asked, confused.

"S-so this's how it feels...to run ma fingers through someone's hair," she

said, actually becoming so emotional that it looked like she was about to start

crying.

Ranma said, "Oh, yeah, you've never touched someone before without your powers

absorbing theirs,"

Rogue continued to rub through Ranma's hair, so caught up in just being able

to feel that she was completely unaware of what she was doing. Ranma just stood

there for probably around a good five minutes while Rogue continued to rub his

head.

"M-my heart's racing as Ah do this," she said, wondering if that was natural.

"Um, you want me to, like, cut some of my hair for you?" he asked, "This is

kinda freaking me out, y'know,"

Rogue blushed as she stepped backwards, "Sorry, I guess I got caught up in the

moment,"

"It's okay," he said.

There was a moment of awkward silence as a slightly flustered Rogue tried to

think of what to say.

"So, how do you feel?" he asked.

"Ah don't know...surreal perhaps," she said.

Ranma scratched his head, "That's an odd way to describe it. I figure you'd

just feel much better. Your entire body should now feel better now that I

released a lot of the stress built up from all the kinds of strain on it,"

"Oh, that," Rogue realized, "Ah thought ya meant how it feels to actually be

able t'touch someone,"

She moved her shoulders and arms around and noticed that there was this

feeling of springiness to them. Every time she moved her arm, she felt this

tingling sensation that felt rather nice.

"You should feel some kinda tingling sensation," Ranma said, "That's just your

body sending out singles like 'Yep, everything here's working fine',"

Rogue noticed her body actually felt like it was lighter, like she was encased

in this feeling of warm water. Planting her feet, she twisted toward one side

and then twist to the other side.

"Oh man, there's a snap to my movements," she was shocked, "It's like...it

feels like my body can move quicker all of a sudden,"

Ranma said, "That's because it now can. Your body was all misaligned and such

so your bodyweight was not being properly distributed. Now that it is, you can

basically move with optimal efficiency, which is more crisp movements,"

"Um, t-thank you," Rogue said genuinely. Whatever animosity she had toward him

from his antics leading up to now had been dismissed. Whatever he had done, her

body now felt much better than before. She didn't know exactly how it felt

better, but it did. It felt better, faster, and stronger as a matter of fact.

Ranma smiled warmly, "No problem. Glad I could help, especially if it means

you won't be glaring daggers at me whenever you see me,"

Rogue laughed, "Ah've been wrong about my judgment of ya, Ranma. You're a

swell guy,"

"Thanks," he smiled.

"Yer still def'nitely rough 'round the edges 'n need to sometimes jus' keep

yer mouth shut, but other than that, yer a real swell guy," she said.

"Thanks, I think," he said.

"Can I touch ya again?" she had to ask, actually feeling a sense of joy just

from being able to touch someone without worrying about her powers getting in

the way.

Ranma shrugged, "Okay. If y'want, we can hold hands while I walk back to my

room,"

"Thanks," she said, "Ah know it's kinda weird but-"

"Don't worry," he said, "I know whatcha mean. If you've never been able to

touch someone without your powers getting in the way, then something like simply

holding hands is a new sensation,"

"Exactly," Rogue said.

Ranma smiled.

"Ranma, Ah've definitely been wrong about you," she smiled warmly, "Yer also

very understanding and down-to-earth,"

"Thanks," he said, actually feeling a bit embarrassed about receiving so many

genuine compliments.

Rogue regarded Ranma for a moment. The inability to touch another person made

her believe she could never have a normal relationship with a man, ever. But

with Ranma, she didn't have to worry about her powers getting in the way. Could

that be a sign, that perhaps there was a potential for a relationship between

them. Sure, first impressions were usually what mattered and Rogue's first

impression of Ranma was definitely not a good one, especially after he started

spouting chauvinistic remarks about the political correctness of the X-Men team

name, but after having talked to him, she had come to realize she had been too

quick to judge. Everyone had their pros and cons. Sure, Ranma's flaw was his

foot-in-mouth syndrome he suffered, which was a very unattractive aspect of his

character, but there were good things about him seem to outweigh it.

"Hey, I just noticed something," Ranma said.

"What?" she asked, caught up with the moment of being happy to be able to hold

hands with someone.

"If you've never touched someone without your powers getting in the way..."

"Uh huh," she said.

"That must mean you're a virgin," Ranma grinned, "Does that mean you've never

touched a guy's 'Battle Aura' before?"

Rogue took back everything she thought that was good about him.

Logan and Storm were walking down the hallway together, on their toward the

front entrance to head outside.

Storm noticed Ranma was muttering something about how women were evil.

"You seem troubled," Storm commented.

Ranma looked up, "Oh, hey, Storm. Hey, Logan, What's up?"

Storm noticed a big handprint on the side of Ranma's face.

"Don't ask," Ranma said, "Let's just one of my theories about the

effectiveness of a slap when accompanied with a certain word was proven a short

while ago,"

Logan chuckled, recalling something that Asuka had mentioned to him.

"I'm gonna go head out and meet our visitor," he jerked his thumb.

"Okay," Storm said, "I'll be with you in a bit,"

Storm didn't know much about Ranma. She figured she might as well talk to him

for a bit and get to know him. Sure, she had gotten on her nerves with that

stunt he pulled with him being naked in the locker room and him trying to pull

Rogue's pants off, but she figured he wasn't all bad all the time.

Storm looked at the handprint, "That looks like it hurts,"

"More than a Lance of Longinus through the chest," Ranma chuckled.

"Huh?" she was confused.

"Nevermind. So, how're you doin'?" he asked, figuring he still had time some

time left before he needed to be ready to go out with Psylocke.

Storm said, "I'm fine. Would you like to join me and Logan?"

"Join ya in what?" he asked.

"Spider-man's here for some reason," Storm said, "Logan and I are on our way

outside to greet him,"

"Spider-man? I assume that's his codename or something, right?" Ranma asked.

When Storm nodded, he asked, "What the heck kinda name is that?"

"So, what kind of name is Ranma?" Storm asked, figuring he shouldn't make fun

of a person's name.

"So, what kinda name is Ororo?" Ranma grinned, referring to Storm's real name.

Storm tried to keep a calm voice as she said, "Have nice day,"

She began walking away from Ranma. She felt it unnecessary to talk to him. She

regretted having stopped to talk to him.

Ranma watched as Storm walked past him and disappeared around the corner down

the hallway.

After she was gone, he looked out the window toward a lone person standing

right by the front entrance to the school.

Ranma noticed that the individual looked to be wearing this skin-tight suit

that was a combination of red and blue that had what looked like webbings

running over the red areas of the suit. He was wearing a red mask with large

white eyes that covered his entire head and face.

Logan could be seen approaching the costumed person.

"What the hell kinda consume is that?" Ranma said, "It's still daylight out.

How can you possibly wear something like that?"

"Wear something like what?" came a voice from behind him.

Ranma turned toward voice.

It was Nightcrawler. He was surprised how Nightcrawler managed to get so close

to him without him noticing but realized that that guy's special power was

teleportation.

"Ah, Nightcrawler, the man with an evil-sounding alias," Ranma smiled.

Nightcrawler chuckled, "Now that you've think of it, yeah,"

"Weren't you visiting some old friend of yours?" Ranma asked, "That's what

Logan said,"

"It was only a quick visit," Nightcrawler said, "I got back about twenty

minutes ago. I saw you on the news. Good job saving those children,"

Ranma shrugged, "It was nothin',"

"I don't about that," Nightcrawler said, "What you did was very extraordinary.

You seemed to have started some kind of revolution,"

"Huh?" he asked.

"What, you haven't been watching television?" Nightcrawler asked, "There was

an investigation done and people believe you actually brought some of the

children back to life,"

"All of 'em but who's counting," Ranma shrugged.

"All of them?" Nightcrawler was shocked to hear, "T-that's amazing!"

"It was nothing," he said.

"Wow, you should watch the news," Nightcrawler said, "Humans and Mutants alike

think you have one of the most powerful kind of powers,"

"So?" Ranma shrugged.

"People are arguing over whether or not you're human or mutant," Nightcrawler

asked.

"I'm neither actually," Ranma said, "Just think of me as a

reeeeeeaaaaaaalllllly powerful guy,"

Nightcrawler was silent.

Ranma, still gazing out the window, noticed Storm and Logan pointing toward

his window. When they noticed he was watching them, they gestured for him to

come outside to meet them.

"Looks like they want me to come outside to talk to me," Ranma said, walking

down the hall.

"Wait, I'll teleport you, it's quicker," Nightcrawler said.

"Okay," Ranma said.

Nightcrawler placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder and teleported, disappearing in

a flash. Oddly enough, Ranma stayed right where he was.

Looking out the window, he saw a confused looking Nightcrawler outside by the

group. He disappeared again and reappeared right in front of Ranma.

"Let me try that again," Nightcrawler said.

Nightcrawler placed a hand on his shoulder again and suddenly disappeared.

After a second, he reappeared, very confused.

"I can't seem to teleport you," Nightcrawler said, "I can teleport someone

when I'm holding them as I teleport, but for some reason my powers don't work on

you,"

Ranma smirked, "Don't worry about. I'll just walk,"

"Um, okay, I'll meet you outside," Nightcrawler said, disappearing.

Ranma headed outside, meeting up with the group in about a minute. He regarded

the guy named Spider-Man oddly. He looked even more weird up close.

"This is the guy," Logan said to Spider-Man, jerking a thumb toward Ranma.

"Evening," Spider-Man said, "I'm Spider-Man,"

"How're you doing? I'm Ranma," Ranma nodded.

The two of them shook hands.

"So, you're the guy that saved all those children, huh," Spider-Man said,

"It's an honor to meet you,"

Ranma grinned, "Nice to meetcha, too. So, what can I do for ya?"

Spider-Man reached into a small backpack that was resting by his feet. He

produced a small professional camera from it.

"I saw you on the news earlier today," he said, "I noticed you were with the

X-Men which I why I'm here. I figured I'd come here to see if I could find you,"

"Well, ya found me," Ranma said.

"I was wondering if I can take your picture," Spider-Man said, "I'm a

freelance photographer, and right now, you're front page news. I was kinda

hoping I could take some pictures of you. It can really help me pay for rent,"

Ranma smiled warmly, "Sure, go ahead,"

"Can I also ask you a few questions as well?" he asked, "I'm not a reporter,

but I'd be really nice of you if you can answer a few questions I'm sure a lot

of people would like to know,"

"Okay, ask away," Ranma said.

Spider-Man gestured toward the side, away from the group, "And you stand over

here. The natural light is best here,"

Ranma did as he was told, "Ya want me to pose or something?"

"No need," Spider-Man said, proceeding to take pictures.

"So, what kinda questions ya got for me" Ranma asked, "Ask away,"

"Name?" Spider-Man asked.

"Ranma Saotome," he answered. Logan and the others looked at one another. This

was the first time they found out what his last name was.

"Age?" Spider-Man asked.

"Not Applicable," Ranma said, "Actually, better yet, one hundred plus,"

"You're over a hundred years old?" Storm seemed to ask for everyone.

"Yep," he said.

"Um, weight?" Spider-Man asked.

"Around three hundred pounds," Ranma said.

"What?" everyone was surprised to hear. Ranma didn't look to weigh much more

than a hundred an eighty pounds, if that.

Ranma flexed one of his biceps, "I have denser muscles than normal humans,"

Everyone found themselves rather surprised at what they saw. Ranma's arms

tightened to reveal highly-defined musculature with cuts and striations.

"That power that you used, what was it?" Spider-Man asked, taking out a pencil

and small loose-leaf notebook.

"The power of positive thinking," Ranma grinned.

"Um, you want me to write that down?" Spider-Man seemed skeptic.

Ranma nodded, "Sure, why not, sounds about right,"

Spider-Man asked, "Do you have any special codename you go by or is it

'Ranma'?"

"A name, huh?" Ranma thought for a moment, "Snafu. Call me Snafu,"

"Snafu?" Spider-Man asked, "That's a rather odd name,"

"What, you think Spider-Man sounds any better?" Ranma smirked.

"I guess you have a point," Spider-Man said, "Well, I guess that's all the

questions I have,"

"That's it?" Ranma asked.

"Yep," Spider-Man nodded.

"Hey, just curious, how'd you get your name, 'Spider-Man'?"

"I'm liken to that of a spider," he said, "I have characteristics relative to

one, like being about to climb walls and such, and more strength and reflexes

and equilibrium and speed,"

"Does that mean you can also shoot web outta your ass?" Ranma had to ask.

"Ha ha," Spider-Man said, "No, but they shoot out of my wrists,"

"Really? Can I see?" he asked, "I did your little interview and letcha take

pictures, afterall,"

"I guess it can't hurt," Spider-Man shrugged.

Spider-Man extended both arms toward a branch of a nearby tree and squeeze the

trigger located in the center of his palms. He did this by pressing it with his

middle and ring finger, leaving his other fingers extended. It looked like that

of an 'I love you' hand-sign. Thin strands of string shot from his web-shooters

through the air and stuck to the branch, solidifying instantly to form two

cable-like strands leading from the branch all the way back to Spider-Man's

wrists.

"Wow, didja see that?" Ranma's eyes widened.

Spider-Man smiled. It seemed like Ranma was impressed.

"His hand gesture for when he shoots webs reminds me of when I was young, when

people fall over after hearing something really stupid. I think people call it

the 'Rumiko Takahashi'-sign. Why it's called that, I have no idea,"

Everyone looked at each other confused.

Ranma chuckled as he walked down the hallway. Walking along side him was Logan

and Storm and Nightcrawler.

"Spider-Man, what a funny name," Ranma said.

"He's done a lot of good for New York City ever since he showed up,"

Nightcrawler commented.

"Where did the name 'Snafu' come from?" Nightcrawler asked, "I didn't know you

had an alias like us,"

Ranma shook his head, "No, I don't have one, but I figured if I did have one,

that would be it,"

"Is there a meaning behind it, that name?" Storm asked curiously.

"Yeah, it's an acronym for 'Situation Normal All Fucked Up'," he stated.

Logan laughed aloud while Nightcrawler snickers. Storm didn't really laugh,

not finding Ranma's crude sense of humor all that funny.

"If you knew the stuff I've been through and trouble I've cause...all

accidentally mind you...that's a fitting name," Ranma said to Storm.

Ranma stopped at they were passing the door to his room.

"I'm gonna go and get some clothes and take a shower," Ranma said, opening the

door to his room, "I'll talk to you guys later,"

Storm said, "I assume you won't mistakenly use the women's locker room this

time around, right?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, yeah, it's the one with 'M-E-N' spelled on it, not 'W-O-

M-E-N',"

"Right," Storm said.

Everyone said their goodbyes as Ranma went into his room.

Once inside, Ranma walked over to the backpack to fetch a clean pair of

clothes. He had wanted to take a shower before Spider-Man had showed up. Now

that he could get back to his shower, he would go take one.

Searching through the back, Ranma came to realize something.

He was an idiot.

He had unwittingly placed his dirty, smelly clothes back in the same bag that

contained his clean clothes. It wouldn'tve bothered him had he put dirty clothes

in the bag. Unfortunately, it had been dirty smelly clothes. To him, clothes

weren't dirty unless they smelled. All his clothes were now dirty because the

smell had permeated the entire bag.

He sniffed himself. His clothes kind of smelled so that meant the clothes on

his back were dirty.

"Damn," Ranma said, "I have no clothes to wear,"

He stood there, wondering what to do to solve this problem. He was expected to

go on a date with Psylocke soon and needed to get ready. Where was he going to

get some clean clothes and soon?

"I know, I'll go ask Cyclops if I can borrow his clothes," he said.

Ranma and Cyclops had had a truce so he believed he should not feel awkward

asking Cyclops for help. They weren't the same size, but it would have to do.

Cyclops was taller and larger than Ranma so that mean the clothes would be

slightly bagging on him.

He couldn't borrow Logan's, Logan too small and least likely to want to help,

especially after he found out Ranma stole money from him. The only other person

he could ask was Nightcrawler, but Nightcrawler was smaller than him and his

clothes would most likely be too tight.

Ranma left his room and wondered which room was Cyclops' room.

Needing someone to ask, he rushed down the hall, hoping to catch up to Logan

and the others. He managed to find them as they were about to head downstairs to

go to the Danger Room or War Room or such.

"Guys," Ranma called out to them.

They all turned around.

"Something the matter?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Yeah, can you tell me which room is Cyclops' room?" Ranma asked, "I wanna ask

him something,"

Storm pointed down one hall, "Just head down the hall. It's the fifth door on

your left. You can't miss it, it's got his name on the door,"

"Like that helps," Ranma smirked, "I can't read English,"

"It's spelled 'S-U-M-M-E-R-S'," she said slowly, carefully.

"Okay, thanks," he said, heading off down the hall.

"I wonder why he was seeking Cyclops and what he wants to ask him," Storm

wondered aloud.

Logan shrugged, "Who cares. We should just mind our own business anyway. If he

wants to tell us, he'll tell us,"

Ranma found Cyclops' room. It was exactly where Storm had described. He even

confirmed it when he read the spelling on the door.

"Damn, there's a men's locker room right across the hall from the room.

Lucky," Ranma said. He didn't know there were more than one locker room,"

Knocking on the door, Ranma hoped Cyclops was in his room.

"Come in," he heard a muffled voice.

Ranma opened the door and entered the room. Entering, he immediately realized

that it wasn't Cyclops that had said that.

It was Jean. She was sitting in a small love seat in the corner of the cozily-

furnished bedroom. It suddenly dawned on Ranma that this wouldn't be surprising

since Jean and Cyclops were married afterall.

"Ranma, what a surprise," she commented.

Ranma looked around, "Wow, this is your room, huh? Nice,"

"Um, thanks," she said, "What can I do for you?"

"Is that potpourri I smell?" Ranma cringed at the scent, "No, wait, it's

scented candles. It MUST be yours. Only girls are into that stuff. What the

heck's with women and scented candles anyway? It's obvious I know who wears the

pants in this marriage,"

"Is that why you're here?" Jean asked, "To make comments on the room?"

Ranma shook his head, "No. Actually, I came here looking for your husband,"

"He went jogging," she answered, "He'll be back in around half an hour,"

"Oh," Ranma seemed disappointed.

"Why, is something the matter?" Jean asked, hoping to be of some help.

Ranma figured it couldn't hurt to ask, "I wanted to ask your husband if I

could borrow some of his clothes. I'm about to go take a shower,"

"What's wrong with your clothes?" she asked.

"They're dirty," Ranma said, "Actually, I don't care if they're dirty. It's

the fact that they're smelly, and that's what matters. Smelly equals dirty,"

"Um, okay," Jean said, figuring it was some guy thing, "Well, if you want, I

can get you some of his clothes. They might be a bit loose, but they'll fit,"

"Thanks," Ranma smiled.

Jean got up off her seat and walked over to the closet.

Ranma looked around the room and noticed a small dresser draw near the corner

of the room that had a mirror on it with a bunch of 'girlie' items on it. It

looked girlie to Ranma so that was what he considered them. He knew it was

useless to try and figure out what those items were.

Looking toward the closet, he noticed Jean's back was toward him as she

proceeded to sift through the outfits, looking for something decent for Ranma.

Ranma cast a big grin as he realized that this was the perfect opportunity to

do a little 'investigative' work.

He headed over to the dresser drawer and pulled out one of the drawers.

Ranma hit jackpot as the first drawer he opened was revealed to be the

'treasure trove' as he so put it. He found Jean's underwear drawers.

Jean's panties were nicely rolled up and placed neatly in the drawer in rows.

It was very easy to determine that Jean preferred a certain color for her

panties. Unfortunately, because it was rolled up, it didn't give Ranma a good

look at exactly what kind of panties they were. He couldn't tell if it was a

rolled up g-string, or thong, or whatever.

Casting a cautious glance to make sure Jean wasn't looking, Ranma reached out

and grabbed a random pair and tried to unravel it. He had no real idea how to do

so as it realized that, even though it looked like it was rolled up like a pair

of socks, it wasn't.

Ranma continued to struggle at unraveling it, growing exponentially concerned

about getting caught with every passing nanosecond.

Realizing he was having trouble with that one, he grabbed at a second one,

attempting to unravel that one as well. When he couldn't do that either, he went

for a third one.

After a few seconds, which felt like eternity, Ranma managed to unravel the

balled up panties. He realized Jean seemed to be fond of the traditional cotton

panties.

"How's this?" Jean asked, emerging from the closet, an outfit in her hands.

Ranma quickly pocketed all three Jean's panties and closed the dresser drawer

before she saw what happened. How nervous he was from being so close to getting

caught was very evident on his face.

"Something the matter?" she asked, "You look a bit, I don't know, flustered,"

"It's the scented stuff," Ranma said glibly, "I think it's killing my

testosterone and I think I'm starting to feel the urge to go gossip or

something,"

Jean laughed. Ranma was definitely quick witted and could definitely give

funny, albeit a bit sexist, comments. This was a stark contrast to Cyclops, who

rarely cracked jokes or laughed at jokes.

"So, how's this outfit?" she asked, holding it forward.

Ranma smiled as he took the outfit, "Looks fine to me,"

"I noticed you like wearing Chinese outfits," Jean commented, "This outfit was

design by the designer Cho Mei, a famous Chinese designers, at least on this

world that is,"

"Thanks," he said, not giving a hoot if the outfit was designed by a child or

designed by drunk blind guy.

Jean crossed the room and opened a dresser drawer different from the drawer

Ranma was looking through a second ago. A second later, Jean produced a pair of

boxers.

"Um, what do you want me to do with that?" Ranma asked, not daring to touch

it.

"Well, you said you need clothes, you'll need underwear, too, right?" she

asked, "These are my husband's,"

"Yeah, but that's-"

"He hardly wears it," Jean said.

"No way, that's gross," Ranma said, "My 'Battle Aura' like hanging around his

own battlefield,"

"So you have a change of underwear?" she asked.

"Well, no, but I can re-wear what I'm wearing now," he stated.

"Wearing the same pair twice? That's rather gross if you ask me," Jean stated.

"So's wearing another man's underwear," Ranma said, "Trust me,"

"Just take it," she said, placing it down on top of the outfit Ranma had in

his hands.

"Fine. Whatever," Ranma muttered, "Thanks,"

Ranma figured he would take it, but it didn't mean he would have to wear it.

He would simply hide it somewhere and just wear his current pair of underwear.

Either that or not wear any at all. Either way, he knew, without a shadow of a

doubt, he was not wearing another man's underwear.

Ranma muttered under his breath as he left the room.

After a moment, he realized he shouldn't complain. He was getting a clean pair

of clothes to wear. Also, he also found out what kind of panties Jean wore.

Ranma reached into his pocket and pulled all three pair of Jean's panties,

holding it up in the air. As he regarded them, he couldn't help but feel really

guilty for what he had done. He had gone and asked Jean for some help, and what

did he do, steal her panties while she had her back turned trying to help him

out.

He grinned.

As guilty as he felt, he couldn't help but feel rather devious too. He was

good. He had stolen panties right out while the girl was in the room.

Happousei was nothing compared to Ranma's raiding skills.

"Heh, what a haul. What a haul," Ranma said nostalgically as he, he crossed

the hallway and into the men's locker room to take his shower.

new stuff 7/17

Ranma stood in front of the shower for around twenty minutes.

He had no soap but he didn't care. Standing in front of water was considered a

shower in his book. Soap was purely optional.

A few people had been in the shower area showering as well when he entered,

but he paid them no mind. He had no idea and had no intention of talking to

them. Naked men should never talk to one another. It was a rule.

When done with his shower, Ranma headed over to the bench where his clean

clothes were to dry up.

Looking at the pile clothes, Ranma came to realize something very important.

"Damn, I forgot to ask Jean for a towel also," Ranma said.

He stood there for a minute, wondering what to do.

Heading for the door, still naked, Ranma stuck his head out, peering down

either direction down the hall. When he noticed two young girls standing in

front of what was probably their rooms, he realized that he could not try and

get Jean's help, not unless he wanted to risk letting those young girls see

something they shouldn't for at least ten years and be scarred for life.

Wondering what to do, Ranma ducked his head back into the locker room.

He looked at the clothes that Jean gave him and contemplated just putting them

on while he was still wet. Then again, perhaps he shouldn't. Those were Cyclops'

cloths and he should at least be a bit careful with them. He had a funny feeling

Jean bought them for him. Why else would she know about who designed it? If

those clothes were some kind of special designer clothes, who knew if being worn

while wet could damage it.

Looking around, Ranma contemplated breaking into one of the lockers and using

whatever towels were most likely stored in there to dry himself off.

Deciding against it, Ranma continued looking around.

"Ah, I'll use toilet paper," Ranma smiled, wanting to pat himself on his back

for the good plan.

He went into one of the stalls and grabbed a handful of toilet paper. Pulling

a large amount out, he proceeded to dry himself. Unfortunately, because toilet

paper wasn't all that absorbent, he found himself constantly having to grab more

and more toilet paper.

When he was dry, he looked into the toilet of the stall. It looked rather

full. He had been dumping toilet paper in there as he continuously dried

himself.

"Hm, maybe I should've flushed several times along the way," he said.

Figuring what was done is done, Ranma brought a foot up and stepped on the

handle to flush it.

Ranma's eyes widened as the water level within the toilet proceeded to rise

and rise. After a second, he realized that these American toilets weren't as

powerful as Japanese toilets.

"Oh shit," Ranma took a step back as the toilet started overflowing.

Thinking fast on his feet, Ranma knew he needed to stop the water.

He quickly ran into one of the nearby stalls and flushed them. He believed

that if he flushed enough toilets, it might use up all the readily available

water and stop the overflowing.

Unfortunately for Ranma, he didn't notice that one of the other toilets had

been used previously and was stuffed beyond capacity, until after he flushed.

This time around, the water started overflowing from that toilet, human

excrement mixed with the water.

"Oh shit," Ranma said again, stepping away, "Not good,"

Now, two toilets were overflowing, one of them containing human excrement.

Ranma wasn't all that worried. He knew that it would only overflow for a

certain amount before the overflowing would stop. Toilets only had a set amount

of water that it would flush down the opening.

Standing around for a minute and noticing that the water wasn't stopping,

Ranma started to panic. By now, the entire shower area was filled with toilet

water.

Ranma quickly headed over to the bench and got dressed in Cyclops' clothes. He

didn't bother to put on the underwear that was given him. Instead, he decided to

wear no underwear instead.

After getting dressed, Ranma noticed that the water seemed to have stopped.

He sighed in relief.

"Good, it stopped," Ranma smiled.

He scratched his head as he wondered what he should do now. He made the mess.

How was he going to clean it?

Look around, Ranma spotted a small door near the back of the locker room. It

said 'maintenance' on it. Heading over there and opening the door, he smiled

when he noticed that there was a mop in there.

Ranma spent the next few minutes mopping up the mess.

"Hm, I guess it looks clean enough," Ranma said, satisfied with a job well

done. Unfortunately, even though it looked clean, it sure didn't smell clean.

"Damn, I can't quite say the same about the smell. Ew, that smell makes me

want to throw up,"

Ranma quickly left the locker room, carrying with him the clothes he was

wearing before. As he exited, he caught sight of Cyclops as he was walking down

the hallway, heading for Jean's room. He had just finished his jog and was going

to take a shower to clean up.

"Hey," Ranma said.

"I have an outfit just like that," Cyclops commented.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. That's because this is yours,"

"Huh?"

Ranma jerked a thumb toward Jean's door, "My clothes were dirty. I figured you

were the only person that whose clothes could fit me was you. I found out were

your room was and came to ask you if I could borrow your clothes. Jean helped me

out and gave me this outfit of yours. I hope you don't mind,"

Cyclops shook his head, "I don't mind,"

"Thanks," Ranma said.

Cyclops sniffed at the air, "You smell that?"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Smell what? I don't smell nothing,"

"I must be me," Cyclops said.

Ranma gave a shy smile as he quickly headed down the hallway, "Well, I gotta

go, tell Jean I said thanks,"

"Um, okay," Cyclops said.

He smirked as he watched Ranma disappear around the corner. It seemed like his

impression of Ranma was rather wrong. He wasn't that bad a guy. Heck, he was

even humble enough to ask for help, his help of all people. That must mean

something.

He went into his room where Jean was there to greet him and ask him how his

jog went. They talked for a short while, Jean mentioning that Ranma was there a

short while ago and that she lent him a pair of clothes from the closet, Cyclops

mentioning that he knew and had bumped into Ranma in the hallway a minute ago.

After a short while, he excused himself to take a shower and wash all the sweat

from his body after that rather intensive jogging session he had had.

Entering the locker room, Cyclops couldn't help but notice something.

"Damn, what's that smell?"

Ranma entered his bedroom, grinning.

"Hm, maybe I should've told Cyclops of my accidentally overflowing the

toilets," he commented. After a short moment, he laughed, "Nah,"

He walked over to his backpack and placed his dirty clothes near it. As he did

so, he noticed that the pair of underwear Jean had given him, Cyclops'

underwear, was mixed among the pile of clothes.

"Gross," Ranma said, pinching a small portion of the underwear and throwing it

across the room. The underwear ended up landing right by the couch.

The underwear landed dangerously close to Asuka's book, which she had lay

facing downward to the page where she had last left off.

Ranma looked at the clock by the small dresser next to the bed and noticed

that it was a little before eight.

He still had time.

He reached into the pockets of his other outfit and produced Jean's panties

and looked at it, wondering what he should do with them.

Ranma recalled what he read in the article pertaining to the personality of a

person that wore panties like Jean.

'A kind and gentle hearted person that could do just about anything if she

puts her mind to it. Relatively passive but could be angered if given constant

antagonism. Very intelligent with beauty that usually attracts many suitors.

Daring, lively, passionate but a fiery temper to match, wearer takes life with

stride and can soldier on with her life with nothing but her hopes and beliefs

if need be. Deep down inside, likes a person that sees the lighter side to

situations and maker her laugh in the process. Likes a guy that would keep her

guessing at what's to come but not go to extremes doing so.'

Ranma scratched his head. That didn't help all that much. That just sounded

like a wide range of traits that made it hard to truly pinpoint her personality.

All in all, from what she had observed, she seemed very much like what was

described, save for that fiery temper part. He never saw her blow her top. It

seems like she has a long rope. He also wondered what the heck that last part

mean, that she might be seeking some kind of adventure to redefine her

existence.

He grinned. It'd be fun to see her blow her top.

He had sensed some kind of part of her that she seemed to keep hidden from

everyone. Whether or not her friends know about this part of her, Ranma didn't

know.

Heading down stairs and to the War Room, Ranma believed that would be the best

place to find Logan.

Logan would probably be most surprised at the out come of Ranma's

investigation.

Logan leaned back in her seat, wondering if he should just sleep in his chair

right where he was or head off to his room.

He closed his eyes for a moment, figuring he would take a quick nap. No one

was around to bother him anyway, Beast still in the Med-Lab, Storm and

Nightcrawler having gone about with their own business.

He heard the door open but knew it was Ranma without even needing to see him.

Ranma, much like everyone else, Logan could discern simply by scent.

A soft fabric fell on top of Logan's face which caught him surprised.

"What the?" he grabbed at the fabric with a hand.

Logan looked down at what was in his hand, a bit confused at what he was

looking at. After a moment, he realized it was a pair of panties.

"Why're you giving me this?" he asked, throwing it back to Ranma, "I'm not

interested in this stuff like you are. I prefer to go after what's usually

behind these things,"

Ranma threw it back toward Logan, "I'm pretty sure, you'd be interested to

know whose those belong to,"

"I'm pretty sure I won't be interested," Logan said, annoyed, about to throw

it back.

"They're Jean's," Ranma said.

Logan stopped in mid-throw.

Ranma burst out laughing, "Seems like you're not all that hard to read, huh?"

"What the heck you want me to do with these?" Logan asked.

Ranma shrugged, "I dunno. Sniff 'em. Put 'em on your face. Wear 'em. Iron 'em/

Collect 'em. I don't really care. It's up to you,"

Logan was shocked at Ranma's vulgarity. Where the heck does this guy come up

with stuff like that?

"Actually, can y'give 'em to Beast?" Ranma asked, "Since he has yet to help

out, having him putting 'em back should be a good way of upholding his end of

the wager,"

"Okay. It sounds tough, but I guess he has no choice," Logan shrugged. He

suddenly noticed something, "Don't you have some date to go on? And what are you

doing with Jean's underwear? I thought you didn't have any intention of stealing

underwear like I first assumed,"

"I didn't intend to steal 'em," Ranma said, "But because of certain

circumstances, that's the only thing I could do,"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two more pairs, throwing them to

Logan.

"Y-you stole three pairs?" Logan's eyes widened, catching both pairs.

"All accidentally, mind you," Ranma commented.

"Right," Logan said sarcastically. He looked at the panties in his hands,

"They're so small,"

"That's the same thing I thought too," Ranma said.

"So, what did the article you read say about the personality that these belong

to?" Logan was curious.

Ranma went on to explain what the article read, recalling it verbatim.

"Interesting," Logan said, "I wonder if the 'fiery temper to match' and might

actually mean Phoenix,"

"Phoenix?" Ranma asked.

Logan said, "A bit long to explain. I don't care to explain it to you anyway

so I won't,"

"Gee, thanks," Ranma said, smiling wryly, "Your eagerness to help me is

greatly appreciated,"

Psylocke looked at the mirror, doing a little turn.

She was glad in a very simple but sexy looking red evening dress that came

down to her ankles. Her hair was done up in a bun and she sported simple stud

earrings that seemed to draw attention to her slender neck. All in all, she

looked quite the knockout and would definitely draw heads.

"Ah can't believe yer going out on a date with Ranma of all people," Rogue

said, sitting down by the edge of Psylocke's bed. She and Storm were both in the

room, Storm standing right by Psylocke's side.

"He asked me out and I said yes," Psylocke said.

"But it's Ranma," Rogue said in annoyance, still remembering that very rude

comment he had said to her earlier about her lack of sexual experience. No man

should ever ever ever make fun of a girls' lack of it. Never.

Storm and Rogue had bumped into Psylocke in the hallway a short while ago.

Psylocke had wanted to ask them about an opinion on what they think of her

outfit.

"I don't even know why you need our opinion," Storm commented, "Your choice in

an outfit is perfect,"

"I just wanted to get both your opinions," she said, looking at the clock on

her wall.

"Ah like it," Rogue said, "It looks nice on ya,"

"Do you see something in Ranma that we don't?" Storm had to ask, remembering

Ranma's lack of tact.

Psylocke shrugged, "Well, he needs to watch what he says, but other than that,

he's not all that bad a guy,"

Rogue thought about the favor he had done for her, applying his knowledge of

chiropractic knowledge on her. The sensations was still within her and was only

now starting to subside. And not only that, a battle simulation in the Danger

Room had yielded battle data about her that was a lot better than her best

previous efforts.

Also, Ranma was the first person she actually TRULY touched with her own

hands. There was no forcefield, not barrier, nothing, that seemed to separate

her from actually physically touching. There was no illusion of touch as she had

ran her fingers through his hair. She had actually touched him. To be able to

experience something like that was a joyous occasion.

"What seems to be on your mind?" Psylocke smirked, contemplating using some of

her telepathic powers to read her friend's mind.

"Oh, nothing," Rogue said. Wanting to hide her blush, she got up and headed

toward the window to gaze outside, making sure her back was toward Psylocke and

Storm.

"Any plans on where you two are going?" Storm asked.

"Ranma likes to joke around a lot and he mentioned something about getting

fast food," she said, "I know he was only kidding. We'll probably end up going

to some fancy restaurant,"

"How can you tell he's kidding around?" Storm asked curiously, "It's not like

you can actually read his mind. Heck, Jean even tried using cerebro to read him,

and she couldn't. That should tell you something,"

Psylocke was silent for a moment, "Yeah. I wonder just how much immunity he

has to mutant powers being used against him,"

"Cyclops' optic beam had no effect on him," Rogue commented, grudgingly

recalling the time when she and Storm stumbled upon Ranma in the women's locker

room and Cyclops' shooting an optic beam at him while he had been basically man-

handling the two of them in the hallway.

"Nightcrawler can't teleport him either," Storm said, remembering seeing the

confusion on Nightcrawler's face when he realized that for himself.

"He's immune to ma powers," Rogue said, "When Ah touched him by accident,

nothin' happened,"

She never bothered to tell them, or anyone for that matter, her having played

with Ranma's hair for a good amount of time, enjoying the sensations of being

able to actually feel someone with her own hands without her powers getting in

the way, too embarrassed to say so.

"I really wonder how powerful he is," Psylocke commented, "Rogue, you

mentioned about what he said to you before, about how there's some other version

of himself. The thought of that's really really scary,"

"Assuming he's tellin' the truth that is," Rogue said, a bit skeptic.

"He resurrected those children," Storm commented, "All of them. Who on this

world off the top of your head can do that without batting an eye while

simultaneously rebuilding a totally collapsed building?"

Rogue scratched her head, "Ah just noticed somethin', how come no one asked

'im to use his powers t'resurrect some of our fallen comrades, like Colossus?"

"Don't you remember what he said about who he brings back to life?" Storm

turned toward her, "He says he will only bring back children. He believes

children should at least have chance in life. Adults are different to him,"

"Don't you think that's rather selfish?" Psylocke asked, "To bring back only

the kinds of people he wishes?"

"He's not obligated to do anything," Storm said, "Don't you remember what he

said on the trip back home? It's your kind of thinking that makes him not want

to reveal to people that he can bring people back to life,"

Ranma had told them on the plane ride home something about how he had once

resurrected people freely and without discretion on what kind of person that

person formerly was. But when word got out of his powers, everyone crossed the

world to go to him, expecting him to resurrect their friends and families like

he was obligated to do so. Mankind's greed to have their loved ones resurrected

simply because they missed them had turned Ranma off to helping everyone he came

across.

Of course, he never revealed that it had been the other version of himself

that had to go through that ordeal, to deal with a world trying to come to him

for help and actually getting angry at him when he refused to do so, like he had

done something wrong.

All three girls recalled some of the comments Ranma said back on the plane.

"Lettme get this straight, I should bring people back to life because I have

the power to do so. What, am I obligated to do so?" he had said, taking on a

serious side none of them had really seen until then. Little did they know that

Ranma seemed to be speaking from the point of view he experienced while trapped

within the body of when he and Rei were reborn as one person.

"Sorry, but I'm not obligated to do anything," he said, "I'll help out

usually, but I'm not obligated to do so. It's the people that think I'm

obligated to do so that gets me angry. If I say no, they get angry, like I'm the

bad guy. Way to go, you consider me a bad guy just because I don't want to help

you out. What about all those people that don't send money to companies that buy

food to feed those more in need than themselves? They have the 'power' to help

those in need, so why don't they? Because they're greedy and want to keep their

money. Congratulations, they're just as much a bad guy as I am. If you miss them

so much, kill yourself and join them in the next world. It's easy as that. Of

course, because no one's seen the other side like myself, they don't know its

that easy,"

They all looked at one another. Ranma's point of view was very sound.

"People don't see both side of things like I do," he had said "Most people are

selfish and want their lost love or lost family member or lost friend or

whatever resurrected. Why? How are they selfish? They miss them and want them

back. That's rather selfish, to want someone back because you miss them.

Surprisingly, Urd considers that the ultimate form of selfishness, to want a

person brought back from the other side, JUST because they miss them,"

Asuka had interrupted at the time and said, "But you brought back Rei,"

"She wanted to be brought back," Ranma said, "See the difference? Have you

noticed I brought back no one just because I missed them, even though I have the

power to do so? People only see from their own point of view. If you see the big

picture, you'll realize that there's much more to how existence works. Some

people don't want to be resurrected, ever think of that?"

Ranma had then turned toward the girls then, "I'm not bringing anyone back

because they're missed. Sure, that seems to contradict my belief, to bring back

those children because they will be missed by their family, but I believe

children are too young to understand whether or not they want to stay dead or be

brought back. I guess as an adult, I'm making the choice for them. Whether or

not it's the right choice, only Urd can decide,"

"People don't see the big picture," Ranma had said, "That's it. Only if you

see the big picture would you understand how I think in terms of using my powers

to bring people back,"

All three girls believed what Ranma had said had merit. Maybe Ranma's thinking

was beyond their comprehension.

A gust of wind blew in through the open window, bringing all three girls back

from their recollection of what Ranma had said.

"Still, I would be nice to have some of our fallen comrades back," Psylocke

said, "Sure, from Ranma's point of view, I may sound selfish, but so be it,"

Rogue looked at the clock and noticed it was getting close to the expected

time was going to show up.

"We've betta get goin' now," Rogue said, "Have a nice date,"

"See you around," Storm smiled, "Be sure to tell us how it turns out when you

get back,"

"I will," she said.

"Are ya sure ya don't mind goin' out with him?" Rogue had to asked, "Dis is

Ranma we're talkin' about. He's the same guy that said all dem chauvinistic

things that pissed all of us off,"

Psylocke nodded, "I know, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Keep in

mind it's just a date, Rogue,"

"Fine fine," Rogue shrugged, heading out of the room, "Ah just think it's

wrong but it's yer life,"

"Have fun," Storm said, leaving the room.

Alone, Psylocke nervously waited for Ranma.

Ranma gently carried Asuka on his back as he headed for his room.

He had stopped by the Med-Lab shortly after talking to Logan and gave Beast

the bad news, that it was his task to return the panties in its rightful

location, in Jean's dresser drawer, without getting caught. Beast tried to

protest several times. It wasn't until Ranma started calling him a 'Big Blue

Furry Chickenshit' did Beast finally give in under the pressure and accept the

task.

Having noticed Asuka still sleeping soundly on one of the bed in the Med-Lab,

Ranma figured he might as well do her the favor and bring her back to the room

so she could sleep on a soft bed. He kind of felt bad that he didn't think of

doing it sooner.

Once inside his room, he placed Asuka gently in her bed.

He regarded her sleeping form. She looked like an angel sleeping so soundly.

It was quite a contrast to the fiery personality she usually displayed when she

was awake.

Grinned, Ranma reached forward and gently pulled up the hem of Asuka's dress.

He had a funny feeling he knew exactly what kind of panties she was wearing,

given the article he had read that described her personality to a T, but he

wanted to see for himself.

When she stirred, Ranma suddenly realized that there was something seriously

wrong with him. This was Asuka. This was a girl that had gone through countless

adventures with him, had been by his side and even helped him out with situation

when he was in need of help.

And this was how he treated her? But then again, Jean helped him out by giving

him some clean clothes to wear and he stole her panties. Therefore, this didn't

seem quite as bad by any account, right?

Ranma decided against it.

Looking at the clock located near the bed, he realized it was already eight-

forty. He should head toward Psylocke's room now. He was now officially late and

girls liked punctuality. Therefore, he was already well on his way to getting

out of this accidental date.

On his way out, he headed over to the backpack that Asuka had with her.

Because the backpack had been left opened, taking a quick glance in revealed to

him that his assumptions were correct on which kind of panties he preferred.

Ranma smirked. He was smart. If he was younger, he probably would've tried to

peek under Asuka's dress while she slept. She would obviously wake up just at

that moment and caught him red-handed. This way, no harm was done.

"Heh, having experience with situations like this kicks ass,"

Psylocke looked angry when she answered the door.

Ranma took his time walking to her room and didn't end up knocking on it until

around eight-fifty.

When he saw Psylocke, he couldn't help but be a bit surprised at how stunning

she looked. She had a very slender figure that had the curves in all the right

place. Even though all his female friends were very beautiful and could stop

traffic whenever they walked around town, Psylocke's sensual beauty caught him

off-guard.

"Whoa," he said, surprised at how much Psylocke could change her appearance.

It was the first thing that popped into his mind.

Psylocke blushed, forgetting she was supposed to be angry at him for being

late, "Thanks,"

Ranma suddenly realized that Psylocke liked compliments and considered that

one. When he wanted to do was make her find his company annoying and cancel the

date. That meant he gets to be as annoying and arrogant and sexist as he wants.

It was going to be really really fun.

"Um, didn't mean to be late," Ranma began, trying to set his plan in motion,

"I saw this cat walking around and tried kicking it but it kept running away. I

eventually kicked it,"

Psylocke looked at Ranma oddly, "What?"

"I'm late because I was trying to kick a cat," he said, grinning.

Psylocke smirked, "Riiiight,"

"You should see that thing fly," Ranma said.

"I know you're joking," Psylocke giggled.

Oh man, she's giggling, he thought. It's not working. Ranma contemplated lying

and saying something really mean to her but chose against it. He wasn't the kind

of person to say personally malicious comments that would hurt a person's

feeling.

"You look nice," she commented, noticing the nice, albeit slightly loose,

outfit.

Ranma looked down at himself, "Yeah, it's Cyclops'. I needed some clean

clothes so I figured I'd borrow his,"

He suddenly realized that he had made a mistake. What he should have done was

wear that first outfit, that outfit Asuka had said really smelled. Girls didn't

like guys that smelled badly, no matter what. If he wore those clothes, she

would easily want to get the date done and over with.

Damn, he thought. It's too late. I can't go back and get changed.

"So, what do we have planned for tonight," she asked, closing her door behind

him.

"Dinner and a movie," he said.

Psylocke smiled, "That sounds rather old-fashioned,"

"Yeah, it seems like you chicks like that old-fashion stuff," Ranma smirked.

Psylocke narrowed her eyes.

"We're gonna go get some fast food and then go see a kung-fu flick," he said.

He knew women never went for that. Psylocke was dressed to kill and would not

like to wear an outfit that stunning to some fast food place. An outfit like

that should be worn for dinners at five star gourmet restaurants. Also, girls

generally liked shows like those romantic comedies that stank of cheesiness and

hated pure guy-flicks like a good kung-fu movie.

"I don't know about the fast food," she said, "But the kung-fu flick sounds

exciting,"

"Shit," Ranma muttered, realizing that he had forgotten something very

important. He just realized that Psylocke liked kung-fu flicks. She had

mentioned liking it when he had been talking to Jean outside in front of the

school when she approached them for the very first time.

"What?" she asked.

Ranma sighed, "Nothing,"

He shrugged. It was too late now.

"Can we go somewhere else to eat?" Psylocke asked, subconsciously touching her

dress, "I'm a bit overdressed for a place like that,"

"Well, if you don't wanna go eat there, we can always cancel the date," Ranma

shrugged, hoping.

Psylocke said, "No, it's no problem. I'll give fast food a try,"

Ranma sighed.

How come he had a funny feeling getting Psylocke to break the date was going

to be harder than expected.

Ranma and Psylocke emerged from the school, surprised to see Logan sitting by

the steps.

"Have fun, guys," he smirked. It wasn't like Logan to rub it in, but with

Ranma, he would make an exception. If Ranma seriously didn't want to be on a

date with Psylocke, Logan wanted to at least see Ranma's discontent before they

set out on their date.

Ranma narrowed his eyes at Logan, knowing Logan found this amusing.

Together, the two of them headed for the front gate to head out for the night.

However, before they left the school grounds, Ranma stopped when he noticed

something on the ground.

Ranma bent down and picked it up, regarding the object in his hands.

"What's this?" he asked. It looked like a pen.

Logan, curious, approached the two of them.

"What is it?" Psylocke asked.

Ranma grinned, "Wouldn't it be cool if it were some kind bomb that was set to

blow up? That way, it could be some kinda distraction for an expected military

raid on the school,"

Psylocke and Logan looked at Ranma oddly.

"Don't you see? If that happens, we will have ourselves an adventure," Ranma

smiled, "We can have good reason to blow stuff up,"

"It's a pen, Ranma," Psylocke said.

"I know," Ranma sighed, "But still, a guy can hope,"

Logan took the paper and looked at it.

"'With love. From MJ'," Logan read the inscribing on the pen.

"What's that mean?" Ranma asked.

Logan sniffed at the pen, "Spider-Man's scent is on this,"

"Man, the way you say that sounds so perverted, y'know," Ranma chuckled.

"Spider-Man must've dropped it while he was interviewin' you," Logan

commented, ignoring Ranma's remark, "It's gotta be. This was right where he was

standing before,"

Ranma took the pen and placed it in his pocket, "Well, it looks like there's

only one thing we can do,"

"What do you plan on doing?" Psylocke asked.

"I heard Spider-Man lives in New York City," he stated, "I'm gonna go there to

return this to him,"

"You don't even know where he lives," Logan said, "No one knows where he

lives,"

"So what?" Ranma said, "It's not like I need to really go to him. I can have

him come to me. A nice big ki-blast into the sky should draw his attention,"

"What about our date?" she asked.

Ranma, figuring that Psylocke was looking forward to getting some fast food

and seeing a Kung-fu movie with him, believed that he should go about it

differently. He needed to change his plans and something else.

"Change in plans, I'm gonna go return this pen," he smirked, "Of course, if

you don't want to come along, we can always cancel the date,"

Psylocke thought about it for a moment.

She had had been looking forward to going to get something to eat and a movie.

But then again, maybe doing everything on the fly might be a better plan.

"I don't mind coming along," she smiled.

Beast was very nervous as he scaled up the side of the school. Right above him

was the open window that led to Jean's room. Despite his relatively large size,

his movements were precise and crisp. He made sure he was silent in his

approach.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Beast said to himself nervously.

In one of his hands were three pairs of Jean's panties. His hear was racing

rapidly, the thought of getting caught scaring him like nothing he had ever

encounter.

Reaching the window, he gingerly peeked inside, grateful the blinds were up

which gave him a clear view of the interior of the room.

Even though he was very sure it was empty before he had peeked in, he still

sighed in relief when he actually saw that the room was empty. The plan to

distract Jean and Cyclops had occurred to him while he was down in the Med-Lab.

He would call for the two of them to meet him in the War Room, that he had

something to discuss with them. That way, it should give him enough time to

actually sneak in and place the panties back in its rightful place while they

headed down there.

He stealthily climbed in through the open window. Once inside, he looked

around for the dresser drawer and the drawer that Ranma had mentioned. When he

spotted it, he quickly ran over to the draw and opened it.

Opening the drawer, he realized he had the right drawer for he found himself

staring down at neatly rolled up panties placed in nice near lines. He spotted a

big hole in the middle of neat pile where three rolled-up panties used to be.

His eyes widened when he noticed something. The panties in his hands were not

rolled up like the ones in the drawer. He ascertained that everything in the

drawer must've been in there neatly. That meant that he needed to roll up the

panties in his hands and replace them back in their rightful place.

"How the heck do I roll them up like that?" he asked himself.

Very nervously, Beast attempted to roll up the panties he had to the best of

his abilities. After a few intense minutes, constantly looking back and forth

between what was in his hands and the panties in his hands, he noticed that he

had rolled them up very similar to that of what was in the drawers.

Beast placed the newly rolled up panties in their rightful place and closed

the drawer.

He then headed for the window and looked outside to make sure the coast is

clear. Unfortunately for him, one of the students had just happened to decide to

sit down by a tree nearby. The student had a perfect view of the window and

would definitely see Beast if he tried to climb out.

Feeling a sense of panic, Beast headed for the door and cracked it open

slightly, peering out into the hallway. When he noticed that it was empty, he

quickly stepped outside and closed it behind him.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Beast felt like a huge weight had been lifted from

his shoulders.

Knowing he was now in the clear, he turned in the direction of the War Room to

intercept Cyclops and Jean. He wanted to tell them something trivial before they

got suspicious why he wasn't there.

He paused for a moment as noticed something.

"Ew, what's that smell?"

Asuka yawned as she woke up.

She felt refreshed.

Looking around, she noticed she was in her bedroom. This confused her because

she remembered having fallen asleep in the Med-Lab.

She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

"He must've carried me," she blushed slightly.

That was typical of Ranma. His kindness was always evident, underneath that

vulgar exterior of his that is.

Climbing out of her bed, she stretched and looked at the clock and was

surprised to notice what time it was. It was a little after nine in the evening.

She had been sleeping for several hours.

Noticing that Ranma wasn't around, she assumed he was most likely in the

Danger Room either training someone or smacking one or all of the X-Men around

for his own amusement.

Figuring she should leave him alone, she walked over to the television and

turned it out, figuring she could kill some time watching the news and getting

to know more about this world. From her observation, this world was similar to

her own only less technologically advanced.

Flipping through the channels, she came cross one displaying the news.

It displayed a picture of a reporter standing in front of some burning

wreckage that looked like a building, or at least what remained of it.

"I'm Terry Lowmen, reporting from Warington, Nevada," a bald man said, "What

you see behind me is what remains of a government supply depot after it had been

attacked by a large group of well-armed solders and mutants. It is unknown where

these soldiers and mutants came from or which affiliation they are with. What is

known is that the facility seems to have been looted of all its adamantium,"

Asuka scratched her head. She remembered Beast mentioning something about some

underground supply depot that existed in Nevada that kept a very large storage

of adamantium in its liquid state.

She laughed slightly at the thought someone could have been reporting a

similar story had Ranma decided not to wait around to bid for the Vibranium, a

key component require in creating adamantium, at that auction that was going to

be taking place sometime tomorrow somewhere in the Philippines.

She watched the newest for a little bit longer before she got bored and

decided it was better to go read her book. She wasn't really going to be on this

world much longer so there was no need to learn of its current events.

Remembering where she last left her book, she turned off the television and

walked over to the couch.

The book was right where she last left it, face-down on the couch and opened

to the page where she last left off.

"What the-" Asuka said, noticing an odd article of clothing right by her book.

She didn't recognize it and reached over and picked it up.

She recognized it to be a pair of boxers the moment she unfolded it.

"W-who's boxers are these?" Asuka wondered aloud.

She knew it wasn't Ranma's. First off, it was several sizes larger than the

kind Ranma would wear. Second, she had watched him packing his clothes back when

they were back home, when she was trying to think of a way to ask him if she

could tag along, and she knew that Ranma had never packed such an article of

clothing.

Besides, Asuka knew that Ranma would never wear something like this. The

boxers looked like something a woman would buy for a man for a present,

definitely something Ranma would buy, especially voluntarily.

She held it up toward the light, wondering where the heck the underwear came

from.

Cyclops walked down the hallway, wondering where Ranma was. He assumed he was

in his room since he wasn't in the War Room when he was there with Jean to talk

to Beast about something.

He scratched his head as he thought back to the conversation with Beast. It

was rather odd and it made him wonder why he and his wife had to go down and

talk to him right away about it.

"You see these pants?" Beast had said, "I'm actually wearing pants one inch

smaller than they're supposed to be,"

"That's it? You asked us down here to tell us that?" Jean asked.

"Well, yeah," Beast had replied.

Jean and Cyclops, very confused, excused themselves and headed back to their

rooms. Once there, Jean suggested to Cyclops that he let Ranma borrow another

pair of clothes.

"Ranma's going to be around for at least another day," Jean said to him,

handing him another one of his outfits from the closet, "Here, bring another

pair for him to borrow,"

"How come?" he asked, "He's already borrowing one of my outfits,"

"Yes, but he will need another one tomorrow," she answered, "Besides, this

way, being helpful to him will make it less likely that the two of you will butt

heads. Because you're helping him out, you'll be less at odds with one another,"

"I guess you've got a point," Cyclops said with a smile, "It is nice that we

seem to have come to terms with one another,"

Outside Ranma's room, Cyclops looked down at the pair of clothes. He was

pretty sure Ranma would appreciate it.

He reached out to knock on the door but noticed it was slightly ajar. He

peered in, about to say something to let his presence be know when caught sight

of Asuka standing near back of the room, by the couch, her back toward him. She

didn't seem to have noticed he was looking in on her.

He noticed she was holding something up in the air as if inspecting it.

T-that's my underwear, Cyclops thought. Under his visor, his eyes were wide

eye with shock. How the heck did Asuka get his underwear? Why did she have it?

There was only one explanation!

Asuka had some kind of crush on his. Since he was married, all she could do

was indulge in fantasizing of him and stole his underwear in the process.

He had never thought something like this would happen.

He quickly and silent closed the door behind him, knowing he had just

accidentally peeped in on a young girl when he shouldn't have. He had seen what

he wasn't supposed to see.

Cyclops, not wanting to come face to face with Asuka and complicate things,

placed the clothes in his hands neatly on the floor in front of the door. He

then reached out and gave the door several knocks before he quickly headed off

down the hallway, disappearing around a corner.

Inside the room, Asuka heard a knock on the door.

"C'min," she said, turning toward the door, throwing the underwear on the

couch like a rag.

When no one came in, she walked over to the door and opened it. Looking down

the hallway and noticing no one was around, Asuka wondering who knocked on her

door.

Looking down, she noticed an outfit lying neatly on the floor in front of her.

She picked it up, wondering who left it there.

Not really caring, she picked it up and went back into her room.

She wanted to go read her book.

Ranma's and Psylocke's arrival in the middle of Times Square was quite a

spectacle. Times Square was basically the busiest section of New York City and

had probably several thousand people walking those street at that time at night.

Everyone gasped as they caught sight of Ranma, wings extended from his back,

came hovering down to the ground. Upon seeing them, many people ran away from

them as if scared for their lives.

However, even though many people ran away, a handful stayed behind.

"I can't believe we arrived here in such a fashion," Psylocke said.

"How come?" he asked, "What, you expected us to walk here? I don't think so,"

"Get outta here you damn mutants!"

"We don't need your kind here!"

"Mutant scum!"

"You don't belong here!"

"This world doesn't belong to you!"

"That," Psylocke said, a bit annoyed toward all those people yelling, "I know

you said you're a visitor to this world, but you need to keep in mind that

mutants are usually hated and feared. What you just did revealed to everyone

that you were a mutant,"

Ranma said, allowing for his wings to disappear, "But I ain't a mutant,"

"It doesn't matter," she said.

One of the guys threw a half empty beer through the air toward Ranma's head.

Ranma stepped to the side as it sailed right past him and hit some hapless

mutant-hater too focused at shouting derogatory remarks toward Ranma to see the

bottle coming.

Ranma snickered when the guy got hit in the head and fell to the ground,

covered in beer.

"Look out!" Psylocke said as she saw another beer bottle thrown toward them.

Oddly enough, most people seemed to be directing their anger toward Ranma and

not her. To them, Psylocke looked to beautiful to be some evil mutant. She must

be some human the mutant was trying to kidnap.

Ranma turned in the direction of the beer bottle and caught it.

He threw the bottle in a nearby trash can.

Ranma turned toward where Psylocke was.

"Get close," he told her, "I'm gonna protect us,"

Psylocke, although a person that never needed protecting, for some reason,

walked over to stand beside Ranma.

Ranma waved a hand in front of him to summon an AT Field.

All of a sudden, a red barrier formed in front of the two.

"Do your worst," Ranma taunted toward the angry mob.

Some bottles and rocks came sailing from the crowd and struck the barrier and

bounced right off a red ripple forming right where it had struck.

"It's an AT Field," Ranma said, "It's completely impenetrable. You can throw

and entire universe at it and it won't even budge,"

He didn't bother to mention that a girls slap seemed to have more power and

force behind it than a universe.

The crowd seemed to grow frustrated as their attempted attacks seemed to have

no affect. When they realized they could do nothing, they just stood where they

were shouting derogatory comments.

Ranma snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, no sound existed.

The people continued to shout thought.

"W-what happened?" Psylocke asked, a bit confused when she realized she could

hear her own voice.

"Nothing much," Ranma said, "I just made it so we can't hear them. Think of it

as something along the lines as when I took off my headset device when Cyclops'

panties were up in a bunch and wanted to yell at me,"

Psylocke looked around. Everything sounded so...peaceful. There was no sound

whatsoever.

"I figured their remarks bothered you, you being a mutant and all, so I

removed sound," he said, "We can hear our own voices, and they can hear their

own voices, but we can hear the others' voices. Pretty cool, huh?"

Psylocke said nothing.

He looked at the now growing crowd of people. All the shouting from all those

mutant-haters had made people approach the group to see what was going on. The

atmosphere seemed to spread as the group got larger and more and more people

joined in shouting derogatory comments.

Psylocke looked over and couldn't help but notice this amused look on his

face.

He pointed, "Check it out, here comes the cops. Let's see if the police are

biased or not,"

"What do you plan on doing?" she asked.

"Just watch," he said.

They watched as several police cars pulled up nearby. Several officers emerged

from their patrol cars and started breaking up the angry mob. Although neither

of them could hear any sound, they both knew that it was something along the

lines, 'All right people. Move along. Move along.'.

Ranma snapped his fingers as sound could suddenly be heard. It startled

Psylocke because the contrast between complete silence and the myriad of loud

noises around Times Square was shocking.

A cop walked up to Ranma while the others seemed to assume the responsibility

of crowd control.

"G'evening, officer," Ranma said, "I'm glad you guys showed up. That angry mob

was threatening us,"

He looked down at the name badge and noticed the man's name was Joe.

The cop named Joe regarded Ranma with a critical eye. He noticed the man and

that woman next to him seemed every bit as human as the next person.

"What's going on here?" Joe asked.

"We're mutants," Ranma lied, "We did nothing wrong but the people seem to

think otherwise simply because we're mutants. Are you police going to let that

happen?"

Joe instinctively reached for his gun.

"We're doing nothing wrong," Ranma said, "All we would like to do is stand

here and wait for someone to show up,"

"You're not allowed to do that," Joe said, "You're distracting the public,"

"We're not allowed to hang out here, like all those people behind you?" Ranma

asked, "Are you sure we're distracting the public more than all those people

showing those derogatory remarks?"

"Are you trying to be a wise ass?" Joe narrowed his eyes, "That's one of the

quickest ways to land you in jail,"

"What's the quickest way, being a mutant?" Ranma grinned.

"You're really pushing it," Joe said.

Ranma smiled.

"Why don't we start from the beginning?" Joe said, trying to remain objective,

"What happened?"

"I came down here with wings," Ranma answered, "They saw my wings, realized we

were mutants and immediate started shouting at us how we mutants should die and

all,"

"What do you expect?" Joe said, "For people not to notice if you do something

like that?"

"But did that mean I did something wrong?" he asked.

Joe scratched his head, "Well, now that I think of it, I guess not,"

"Just curious, can you explain to me why humans seem think we're so evil?" he

asked.

Joe said, "Because of your powers. Who knows what kind of evil mutants could

use their powers for,"

"Ah, because of my powers," Ranma said, "I see,"

Joe took a step back as Ranma stepped toward him. Ranma, who had been very

collected this whole time, sneered at the guy like he was ready to rip Joe's

head off.

"Say that again, I fucking dare you!" Ranma threatened the man, "Say that you

think all mutants are evil!"

The man pulled out his gun and trained it toward Ranma's chest but he didn't

fire.

"Freeze!" the man said nervously.

Ranma snapped his fingers.

The man was suddenly enveloped in a ball of light which startled everyone

nearby. When the light disappeared, a red demon-like creature with giant horns

and yellow eyes and six arms stood in Joe's place.

"What the?" Joe asked, looking down at himself. He noticed he had an extra

four arms.

The crowd, seeing the monster, immediately started running for their lives.

"Let's see how you feel being judged unfairly," Ranma said, smirking, "Maybe

you'll learn from your experience,"

Joe looked around and noticed his brethren staring at him in shock, terrified

at what they saw before them. He noticed the fear they have in their eyes as

they gazed at him.

He saw them reaching for their guns and immediately knew what was going to

happen.

"Wait!" Joe said, fearing for his life.

Joe watched as his comrades pulled out their guns and pointed them all toward

him.

"Wait!" Joe said, taking a step toward them, "I'm-"

All their comrades opened fire on him.

"Ahh!" Joe screamed.

Ranma snapped his fingers again. All of a sudden, the whole world around him

seem to move in reverse. The man seemed to be able to see everything going in

reverse before him and feel himself even moving in reverse but unable to do

anything about it.

Before Joe knew it, he found time slowing down in reverse, eventually stopping

just as he found himself standing in front of Ranma again.

"G'evening, officer," Ranma said, "I'm glad you guys showed up. That angry mob

was threatening us,"

Joe looked at Ranma, confused. He suddenly felt like he had control over his

body.

He looked down at himself and noticed that he seemed to have his body back.

"G'evening, officer," Ranma repeated, "I'm glad you guys showed up. That angry

mob was threatening us,"

"Um, er," Joe said, "Um, what seems to be the problem here?"

He wondered if what experienced was all a dream.

"We're mutants," Ranma grinned, "We did nothing wrong but the people seem to

think otherwise simply because we're mutants. Are you police going to let that

happen?"

Joe suddenly felt himself wanting to reach for his gun.

However, he didn't reach for it. Something in him told him that that was

wrong, that he should not automatically assume something. Doing so meant he was

judging them unfairly.

"Um, I'm sorry to hear that," Joe said, feeling like that dream he had had was

telling him something, "If you'd like, we'll escort you to safety,"

"Thanks," Ranma grinned.

The man turned around and called out to his partner, "Rico,"

His partner turned around to face him. The sudden image of his partner

shooting him out of the fear of the unknown entered his mind.

"What's up?" his partner asked.

Joe shook his head, banishing those images, "Make an opening for the patrol

car. We're going to escort these two away from here,"

"All right," his partner said.

Joe turned toward Ranma and Psylocke.

"Okay, follow me," he gestured.

He turned around to lead the way through the crowd to the patrol car. As he

did so, he felt Ranma's hand come to rest on his shoulder.

"Well, it seems like you learned from your experience," Ranma said.

The man turned toward Ranma, shocked, "S-so it was all real, what you did,"

"What, you gonna go back to your close-mindedness?" Ranma asked.

The man paused for a moment, "No,"

"Well, lead the way," Ranma said.

The man lead the way. As he did so, one of his comrades noticed Ranma and

recognized him.

"Hey, y-y-you're that mutant that-" the comrade stammered.

"Let it go," Joe said, suddenly feeling angry for having been so close-minded

before. Thanks to Ranma, it opened his eyes up on exactly how it feels to be

misjudge unfair.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" the comrade said, taking hold of Ranma's hand

and shaking it profusely.

Joe turned toward Ranma and his comrade.

"You're the guy that saved all those children I saw on television!" the

comrade said, "Thank you, my daughter was one of the children you saved,"

Joe's mouth widened in shock. He had heard of this guy. He had saved three of

his co-workers children's lives. It made him realize how bad a person he was, to

have assumed what he had assumed.

Ranma smirked at the man.

"Seems like I used my powers for quite a bit of 'evil' that time, huh?"

new stuff 7/18

Ranma and Psylocke were in the back of patrol car heading toward a location

unknown. The cop named Joe and his partner, Rico, sat in front.

He looked at his back.

"Damn, I forgot I'm wearing Cyclops' clothes. They're ruined," he said, "I

shouldn'tve used my wings,"

After a moment, he shrugged, "Oh well. Who cares. It's Cyclops',"

"Well, if you want, we can go shopping," Psylocke suggested, "We can go find

some clothes for you. Clothes that are your own,"

"Going shopping? No way," Ranma said, "I hate shopping. I'd rather walk around

with holes in the back of my shirt than go shopping,"

Psylocke asked, "Waitaminute, can't you use your powers to-"

"Oh yeah," Ranma smacked his head.

He pocked his finger over his shoulder toward his back. Suddenly, the holes

that had been produced from when Ranma was using his wings seemed to magically

mend itself together and disappear.

"Tada, like new," Ranma grinned.

"Is that just like what you did back it the school?" Psylocke asked.

"Yep," he said.

"Um, what happened back there?" Psylocke asked, referring to that weird time-

warp thing she had witness. She and Ranma and Joe had been the only one that

remained completely aware of that momentary time-warp or whatever that Ranma had

implemented.

"Nothing much," he shrugged, "A time-warp here. A transformation there. I was

just having some fun while making someone learn a valuable lesson,"

Rico looked at Ranma, "Huh?"

"Nothing," Ranma said.

Joe said nothing, knowing exactly what Ranma said. He wondered if he would be

attending therapy in the near future.

"I really think it's amazing what you did," Rico said, turning around in his

seat to face Ranma, "Thank you so much for what you've done,"

"I know," Ranma started getting annoyed, "You told me a million times already.

I don't like receiving thanks and such. That's why I don't care to tell people

of the stuff I do,"

"Oh, sorry," Rico said, feeling guilty for having annoyed the savior of his

daughter, his only daughter.

"It's okay," Ranma said.

Psylocke looked out the window and at the tall skyscrapers shooting high up

into the sky.

"So, where would you like us to drop you off?" Joe asked.

"You don't happen to know where Spider-Man lives, huh?" Ranma gave a meek

smile, reaching into his pocket to retrieve a pen.

Joe said, "Sorry. I don't think anyone knows. Why, ya looking for him?"

"Yeah," Ranma said.

"Well, he's usually around," Joe said, "He can be seen swinging from building

to building around this time of night,"

"Thanks for the info," he said.

After a few minutes, he said, "Can you let us off here?"

"Here?" Joe asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "We should be fine now. I simply won't do anything to

attract attention and get people to realize we're mutants,"

Ranma climbed out, looking around at the giant building that basically hid the

sky, unknowingly holding a hand for Psylocke to take as he helped her out.

Psylocke took his hand and helped herself out of the patrol car, feeling touched

by the kind gesture.

"Um, thanks," Joe said, "You've made me realize what it feels to be on the

other side, what it feels to be on your side of the fence,"

Ranma smirked, "Don't worry about it. Take care,"

They all said their goodbyes and parted. When the patrol car disappeared

around a corner, Ranma turned toward Psylocke, who was looking around, wondering

why he had asked to be let out here.

"Wow, what a big building," Ranma commented, his neck cranking backwards to

stare up toward its top, "What building is this?"

Psylocke said, "This is the Empire State Building. It's the tallest building

in New York,"

"C'mon, let's go," he said.

"Where?" she asked, following him.

As she tried to keep up, she found herself having trouble. The dress she was

wearing made it hard to take larger strides. It made her wish she had worn

something like a comfortable pair of jeans.

Ranma entered the building and looked around and realized he was in a lobby.

He noticed there was a lone booth in the middle of the room with a lone security

guard manning the booth.

"Hello," Ranma said, "How do we get to the top floor?"

The guard, whom had been busy reading a book when he was rudely interrupted,

cast Ranma a cold glance.

"You can't go to the top," the man said, "The building's closed. It closes at

six. Come back tomorrow, we're open at eight in the morning and close at the

same time,"

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the door, "If you're closed, then how come the

door was opened,"

"Regulations," the man said, returning toward his book.

Ranma reached over and pressed a few points on the guy's body.

Before he had a chance to even ask what Ranma was doing, the guard slumped

asleep in his seat, his book falling down to the floor by his feet.

"You pressed his sleep pressure points, huh? Why'd you go and do that?" she

asked.

Ranma headed for the elevators located in the back of the lobby, "I didn't

wanna deal with the trouble of sneaking by him. The building's closed so we

shouldn't be in here in the first place,"

"What are we doing in here in the first place?" she asked, "If you're

interested in going sight seeing, we should do it another day, perhaps after you

get back from the auction,"

Ranma pressed the button to call for the elevator, "I'm interested in sight

seeing, yeah, but not right now. I wanna go find Spider-Man. The cop said that

he can usually be seen swinging around between buildings around now. What better

way to find him then to spot him from a vantage point like the top of this

building,"

"That sounds like a good idea," Psylocke agreed, "I'm curious, how come you're

going to such lengths to return a simple pen to Spider-Man,"

"Why not?" he said.

Because then this isn't really a date, Ranma thought. It's more along the

lines of doing something together other than dating.

Beast watched the television in his room, transfixed on what was on the

screen. It displayed an image of a what used to be a military based in the

background with a young looking man wearing a very heavy winter jacket looking

very much like he didn't want to be there.

"Good evening, I'm Joseph Maker, reporting to you Antarctica from what used to

be the American military base of Melroy," the reporter said, "What you see

behind he is the smoldering remains of a base that had been laid siege to

roughly two hours ago,"

Beast scratched at his chin, deep in thought, "Interesting. There's got to be

a connection between this and the one in Nevada,"

He continued to watch intently.

"Melroy was a base that was set up over the crash site of a meteor that was

made almost solely of the ore, Wakandan Vibranium, a valuable rare metal. The

meteor had crash landed here in Antarctica several years ago and a base of

operations had been set up in attempts to mine the valuable ore. Just recently,

after several years of continuous mining, the last of the Wakandan Vibranium

material had been extracted. Sources say that shortly afterward, the based was

attacked by a large group of well-arms soldier and mutants that looted the base

of its extracted ore. Coincidentally, this group is believed to be somehow

connected to the group that attacked a Nevada supply depot earlier today. An

investigation is currently underway,"

Beast knew what the connection was, adamantium. The vibranium that was

acquired was a key component to making adamantium, the same form of man-made

material stolen earlier in the day.

"Hm, it seems like Ranma's not the only one that wants adamantium,"

At that moment, there was a knock at the door.

"Enter," Beast said, not looking away from the television.

The door opened and in entered Jean and Cyclops.

"Beast, are you watching the news?" Cyclops asked, grateful that he could get

his mind off of the scene he had witnessed of Asuka and his underwear.

Beast nodded, "Yes. This is definitely no coincidence. Someone's collecting

all the adamantium or resources that can create it,"

Cyclops lips became a thin line.

"Looks like we're all going to be heading to the Philippines to prevent it

from happening again," he said, "Where's Ranma? We're going to all leave early

and prepare. Hopefully, it won't be too late when we get there,"

Ranma and Psylocke road the elevator toward the top floor of the Empire State

Building. For some odd reason, Ranma's presence in there with her made Psylocke

feel that the elevator was rather cramped.

"Do you use that sleep pressure point a lot?" she asked.

"Nowadays I do," he said, "I can't go around and smack people unconscious or

nothin'. I could accidentally kill a person that way if I'm not careful.

Besides, it's easier this way,"

"Will he remember anything?" she asked.

"The guard? Nope," Ranma said, "He'll probably be confused at first when he

wakes up because he won't remember how he fell asleep. After a short while,

people tend to think they fell asleep without realizing it. For him, he'll

probably think he fell asleep on the job,"

Psylocke was very impressed. That was such an amazing technique. Confrontation

could end peacefully if she used techniques like that.

"If I wanted, I can do whatever I wanted to him," Ranma shrugged.

"Like what?" she asked nervously.

"Usually, I just stick his hands in his pants and make it seem like he's

sucking his thumb," he said, "It's just an effective way of getting that 'What

the hell?' effect,"

Psylocke was silent.

Ranma turned toward her and smirked, "Ah, I know whatcha thinking. To answer

your question, yes, if you were asleep, I could basically have my way with your

body and there's nothing you can do about it. You'll just sleep right through

it,"

Psylocke suddenly became very nervous.

"Of course, it's not like I'm the kinda person that would actually do

something like that," Ranma laughed, involuntarily placing an arm around

Psylocke.

"There's a reason why I call it the sleep pressure point," Ranma said, "And

not the rape pressure point. Because I believe it's only used for one thing, to

put the guy or girl to sleep and that's it,"

"But how am I to know, if you're telling the truth, that-" she began.

"That I didn't have my way with you?" he asked, "Well, frankly, you can't.

Well, not unless you're a virgin and sudden find your, um, hymen missing,"

"Ranma," Psylocke said sternly.

"What?" Ranma asked, stepping back, "Don't get your string panties you like so

much in a bunch. You asked me and I told you. I'm explaining my answer logically

and truthfully. There's nothing to worry about anyway. It's not like I'll ever

do those things. I am one of the good guys, afterall. It's like me asking you

why don't you go around killing humans even though you definitely have the power

to do so? Because it's not in your nature. Same as me,"

"I guess you have a point," she said, feeling relieved.

It was probably the best feeling, to know that someone of Ranma's power was on

the good side.

The door to the elevator opened to reveal an open lobby to a floor located

near the halfway point of the building. From here, they needed to switch

elevators to get all the way to the top.

Psylocke realized something as Ranma stepped out of the elevator.

"How did you know I like wearing string panties?"

Beast looked at the screen.

Everyone was gathered in the War Room, save for Asuka, Ranma, and Psylocke.

"Guys, it seems like something big is going to go down," Cyclops said.

"Doesn't it always, Sugah?" Rogue commented, "We never any downtime that last

more than a few days. It's always something major too. We've gotten used ta it,"

Beast said, "It was rather nice, the time off. Aside from a few quick

missions, this has probably been one of the longest runs we've had without

something major happening,"

"Now's not the time to be talking about it," Cyclops said.

At that moment, in entered Asuka.

Asuka, figuring she should stop reading and stretch her legs, had decided to

visit Ranma whom she believed was in the Danger Room.

"A-Asuka," Cyclops said, blushing slightly, the image of her licentiously

staring at his underwear entering his mind.

"Um, am I interrupting anything?" she asked.

Everyone looked at one another, wondering if they should tell Asuka. This was

a need-to-know basis, but she was with Ranma. They wanted Ranma to take part in

this mission and believed that there was a good chance that Ranma, not caring

about protocol, would end up telling Asuka anyway, even though X-Men protocol

would not want her knowing of such a thing.

"There seems to be an occurrences of thefts of adamantium and vibranium,"

Beast said, knowing that she was going to know sooner or later, "It seems like

there is someone else in need of adamantium much like Ranma. But unlike Ranma,

whoever this individual is seems impatient and is going about very extreme

methods in acquiring adamantium or one of the key components for creating it,"

"If that's the case, then won't that mean the auction will be a target," Asuka

asked.

Everyone looked at each other, surprised at how quickly Asuka thought of that.

She had a quick mind.

"That's the conclusion we came to," Beast said, "We intend to leave for the

Philippines immediately. As soon as we find Ranma and Psylocke,"

"Where's Ranma?" Asuka asked, noticing that he wasn't in the War Room or the

Danger Room.

"He's out on a date with Psylocke," Storm said.

"What?" Asuka's eyes widened, "A date?"

Cyclops silently regarded Asuka. He noticed that Asuka seemed to have a fiery

temper that reminded him of his wife. Jean would most likely react in the exact

same way if someone say that to her about her husband being on a date with

someone. Maybe she and Jean shared similar traits. Of course, that still didn't

explain her odd fetish of stealing his underwear.

Jean closed her eyes, "I'll try and communicate with Psylocke again. I can't

seem to get a good reading on her location but she's not that far away,"

"She and Ranma went to New York City," Logan said.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Ranma found something Spider-Man left behind," Logan said, "He decided to go

there to return it to him,"

"When did Spider-Man show up?" Cyclops ask.

"Earlier," Logan answered.

"Strange he didn't stay around to say hi to anyone else," Cyclops said.

Logan smirked, "Maybe he doesn't want to end up meeting you, One-Eye,"

"Watch it," Cyclops said in a cold voice.

Asuka giggled, oddly reminded of Ranma and Ryoga.

Jean headed for the door, "I'm going to go use Cerebro to get a better fix on

Psylocke and tell her what's going on. If she's with Ranma, we can inform her of

what's going on and get the two of them to come back,"

"Jean, give them a rendezvous point," Cyclops said, "We'll pick them up on the

way,"

Nightcrawler headed for the door as well, "I'll go ready the Blackbird for

takeoff,"

Asuka, uncomfortable with the fact that she didn't know anyone all that well

except for Nightcrawler, said, "Um, I'll keep you company,"

"You'll be staying here," Cyclops said.

"What?" Asuka said, surprised at what she heard.

"We'll be taking off shortly and you'll be staying here at the school,"

Cyclops said, "We might be undergoing a very dangerous mission and your safety

might be in jeopardy,"

"So?" Asuka said, trying to stand firm.

Cyclops was caught off-guard by her reaction.

He cleared his throat, "I know you and Ranma came here together, but while

Ranma isn't here, you're our responsibility,"

"I'm not some piece of meat," Asuka said, a bit angry, "Don't you think I have

any say in this?"

"Um, yes," Cyclops said, "But you have to take into consideration your own

safety. You don't have mutant powers like our own to protect you,"

Beast couldn't help but remember a comment Ranma had mentioned to him once,

how the team seemed to rely on their mutant powers a bit too much. By what

Cyclops was saying, that seemed very much the case.

"I-I can take care of myself," Asuka said, "I'm not some child,"

"Scott, let her come along," Jean said, pausing at the door, "We'll be able to

watch over her. Besides, I'm pretty sure Ranma will make use turn the Blackbird

around to pick her up if he finds out she's not there,"

"He might also do the same if she was there," Cyclops said.

"You've got a point," Jean said, heading out the door, "The choice is yours.

I'll be back later,"

Cyclops regarded Asuka for a moment.

"Fine," he said, "You can come along,"

Asuka smiled.

She turned toward Nightcrawler as he seemed to be waiting for her by the door

and headed out of the room with him. The two of them indulging in conversation

German could be heard as they headed down the for the hanger bay where the

Blackbird, the X-Men's plane, was located.

Cyclops turned toward the rest of the group and noticed Logan grinning. It was

obvious Logan was thinking something along the lines of 'Well, it seems Jean

wears the pants in the relationship, sissy-boy'.

"Don't you dare say a word, Logan," Cyclops said coldly, "Don't you dare say a

word,"

"Hey, there he is! There's Spider-Man,"

Ranma pointed toward what looked like a red speck swinging through the street

between the buildings far below them.

"Seems like he's on patrol or something," Ranma carefully watched him.

"Seems so," Psylocke said.

Psylocke and Ranma were on the floor just below the observation deck of the

building. It confused Psylocke why they didn't go up to the observation deck.

Ranma continued to watch silently for a minute before he smirked, "Wow, seems

like he has a pattern on how he goes about patrol. A sniper can take him out

pretty easily if he figured out Spider-Man's pattern,"

"He has a pattern?" Psylocke asked, trying to figure it out, "I don't see a

pattern,"

"Just watch long enough and you'll see it," Ranma said, "Don't worry about it.

It's no big deal if you don't see it. Ever skydive?"

"What?" she looked at him.

She watched as Ranma stuck his fingers through either side of the thick glass

on of the window in front of him. With a quick yank, Ranma pulled the glass

panel right off and gently placed it off to the side. It was kind of ironic that

Ranma gently placed it somewhere considering the panel, while not broken, was no

longer of use since it had holds in it where Ranma's fingers had broken through.

"Ever skydive?" Ranma grinned as he extended his hand toward her to take.

Psylocke, seeing the hand, accepted it, "Um, sky diving? No, why do you ask?"

"It's fun," he grinned, "Let's find out if I can intercept Spider-Man and grab

one of his webs,"

"What?" she said.

She gave a yelp of surprise as Ranma picked her up in his arms, his gaze out

the window toward the ground below, at Spider-Man as he went about swinging

through the streets, completely unaware that he was being watched.

"Three, two, one, now!" he counted.

Before she realized what was happening, Ranma leapt out of the building.

Although Psylocke wasn't scared of heights, what with the fact that she usually

ended up being carried by one of the flying members of the X-Men, she was not

prepared for what came next.

Her heart shot up into her throat as she suddenly felt a sensation of

weightlessness. She didn't expect it to last long because, any second, Ranma

would take flight and hover down toward the ground. But when she felt the wind

rushing by her and the sensation that neither of them were slowing down, she

realized that they were free falling.

"Hey, don't you think it's time you let your ability to fly kick in?" Psylocke

asked.

"Who says I'm gonna fly?" he grinned.

Psylocke's eyes widened when she realized that Ranma seemed to have this crazy

to actually free fall toward the location where Spider-Man would be at just at

the moment they reached that location.

Before she had a chance to scream, she felt her descent suddenly slow down

considerably. She looked over toward the side and noticed that Ranma had used

one of his hands to grab onto Spider-Man's webstrings just as it shot out in

front of them as Spider-Man went swinging by below them.

"Y-you grabbed it!" she said, shocked.

"Yep," Ranma smirked.

He glance up toward where the suddenly saw the webstring snapped apart cleanly

in his hands.

"Oh shit!" he said as he and Psylocke resumed their fall toward the ground

below.

Spider-Man had been patrolling the streets of New York City, looking for any

instances of crime. As he swung by, he suddenly felt one of this webstrings

become extremely elastic, stretching so much that he almost scrapped feet

against the top of a car as he swung.

Looking up, Spider-Man noticed two people seemed to have grabbed onto his

webstrings.

"Where did they come from-" he began to say.

Suddenly, the cable snapped under their combined weight, sending the two of

them and Spider-Man plummeting down to the ground. Because of his superior

reflexes, Spider-Man shot out another webstring from the webshooter of his other

arm toward a lamp post, slowing down his descent just enough that he was able to

land on the ground safely.

"What the heck just happened?" he asked, looking around.

He glanced across the street where he caught sight of a man standing in the

middle of the sidewalk, a beautiful woman with purple hair in his arms.

Ranma had landed on his feet, a rather shocked Psylocke still in his arms.

"Y'okay?" he asked, giving her a shy smile as he placed her toward the ground.

He glanced in the direction of Spider-Man and noticed he was all right and

didn't get hurt.

Spider-Man, ignoring the stares he was receiving, quickly crossed the street

and ran up to Ranma and Psylocke.

"R-Ranma?" Spider-Man asked, "W-what are you doing here? What happened?"

Ranma gestured toward the webstring in his hand, "Um, your web kinda came

undone,"

"What were you doing back there?" Spider-Man asked, "That was you that grabbed

onto my web, right?"

Ranma reached into his pocket and produced a pen, "I came here to give this

back to you,"

Spider-Man looked at the object in confusion.

"Y-you did all that to give me a pen?" he asked.

"More or less," Ranma said. It sure beat going on some boring date.

"Where did you come from?" Spider-Man asked, "I didn't see you until I saw you

holing onto my web,"

Ranma pointed up toward the Empire State Building looking high into the sky

several blocks away, "We watched you from there. I caught on to the pattern of

your patrol and, well, let's just say we decided to drop in on you, pun

intended,"

"Wait, you mean to tell me you timed where I was going to be and jumped from

the Empire State Building and grabbed onto my web just as I swung by where you

expected me to be?" Spider-Man asked.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. It all went well until we realized your webstring broke,"

Spider-Man scratched his head, "That's strange. It shouldn'tve. What did you

do to actually snap it?"

"Hm, maybe I gripped it too tightly," he stated, "Sometimes I forget my own

strength,"

Spider-Man wondered if he was telling the truth or not.

At that moment, Psylocke approached Ranma.

"Ranma, Jean just contacted me telepathically," she said.

"Oh?" he asked, curious.

"The X-Men are leaving for the Philippines right now," she said, "They would

like us to rendezvous with them for pick up,"

"Huh? I thought we were leaving later," he said.

"It seems like something's come up," she answered.

"What's come up?" Spider-Man asked, "Would you like my help? I can join you

guys if you want. It's been a quiet night around here,"

Ranma smirked, "You sure? Good chance we won't be back early. You might get in

trouble with your girlfriend or wife or whoever that 'MJ' is I see on inscribed

on that pen,"

Spider-Man said, "It don't bother me...much. If it's for the benefits of

others, she'll understand,"

"Cool. The more the better," Ranma smiled.

"I've set up a rendezvous point," Psylocke said, "I told Jean that we'll meet

her on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in fifteen minutes,"

"Sounds good to me,"

Ranma, Spider-Man, and Psylocke rode the elevator together.

"I can't believe the security guard just slept right through us sneaking past

him," Spider-Man commented.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself. What are the chances?" Ranma chuckled.

Psylocke giggled as they shared their silent joke together.

"Thanks for bringing me back my pen," Spider-Man said, feeling bad that he had

forgotten that thank them until now.

"It's no problem," he said, "It makes me curious, who's MJ?"

"My wife," he said, "Not feeling uncomfortable about revealing a little bit of

information about himself to Ranma, especially when he had recently found out

Ranma actually saved the son of a friend of his.

"What's her name?" he asked.

"Sorry, but that's a secret," Spider-Man said, tapping his head, "I like to

keep my identity and my life a secret,"

Ranma reached out to grab Spider-Man's mask but he skillfully ducked to the

side as Ranma narrowly missed him.

"Uh uh," Spider-Man shook a finger toward him, "That's not nice. Don't you

know there's certain etiquettes for good guys to observe?"

Ranma chuckled, "Who says I'm a good guy? I'm generally a good guy, but I'll

become a bad guy when it's convenient,"

"Hey," Spider-Man said, "What kinda way of thinking is that?"

"So what, what kinda thinking do you have?" Ranma asked.

"'With great power comes great responsibilities'," Spider-Man said

confidently.

Ranma thought about it for a moment, "That's not bad. I like that saying. But

I think there's an even better way of paraphrasing it,"

"And what's that?" Spider-Man asked.

"'With great power comes great fun'," Ranma grinned.

Psylocke and Spider-Man looked at each other.

"Um, this is where you fall down to the ground," he said, feeling like the

joke wasn't having it affect.

"Fall down to the ground?" Psylocke asked, "Fall down to the ground for what?"

Ranma sighed, "Forget it. I don't think that kinda stuff happens on this

world,"

There was an awkward silence in the elevator as Psylocke and Spider-Man had

reason to believe Ranma was crazy.

"Hey, can I guess what the name of your wife is?" Ranma asked.

"You can make all the guesses you want, but I won't say if you're right or

not," Spider-Man shrugged.

Ranma asked, "Could her name be Mary Jane?"

"W-w-w-what? How'd you know?" Spider-Man shouted in shock.

"You mean I was right?" Ranma laughed, "I was only guessing but based on your

reaction, it seems like I've guessed right,"

Ranma had this odd luck of being able to actually guess right on the first try

for some reason. He had did it countless of times before and it seemed like that

odd luck was still with him.

"R-Ranma, I-I don't know h-how you managed to figure it out," Spider-Man said

in an almost pleading voice, "But you absolutely have to keep it a secret,"

Ranma burst out laughing, "No,"

Spider-Man said nothing. Thoughts of his enemies finding out and trying to get

to him through his wife raced through his mind. What could he do, move? Create a

new identity to protect her?

"I'm just joking," Ranma placed a hand on Spider-Man's shoulder, "I won't tell

anyone, but on one condition,"

"What is it?" he asked.

Ranma grinned, "You take off your mask so I know what you look like,"

"But-"

"All right," Ranma became more serious, "It's obvious that you're all

panicking about what I found out about you. But don't worry about it. I promise

you, I'll tell no one,"

Spider-Man, for some odd reason, believed in Ranma's sincerity.

He sighed in relief, "Thanks,"

Ranma jerked a thumb toward Psylocke, "I dunno about Psylocke here, on whether

or not she'll tell anyone,"

Spider-Man turned toward Psylocke, "Psylocke-"

"Don't worry about me," Psylocke said, "I won't tell anyone. I swear on my

honor,"

"Thanks," he said, "I really appreciate it,"

There was some awkward silence in the elevator for a second.

Spider-Man noticed the beautiful red dress that Psylocke was wearing, "We're

you two out on a date or something when this mission came up?"

Ranma nodded, "Yes. We were enjoying ourselves when this mission came up. It's

too bad. Oh well. Shit happens,"

He felt happy. His accidental date with Psylocke had finally come to an end.

"This doesn't really count as a date," Psylocke commented, "We'll go on a real

date another day, after we get back,"

"W-what?" Ranma stammered, "But-"

"You two look good together," Spider-Man complimented.

Psylocke blushed, "You think so? Thanks,"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Spider-Man.

"If you want, I can show you some great restaurants to dine at," he continued

on, "There's also a few clubs uptown that you all might like,"

"Y'know what, I changed my mind, I think I will tell people the name of your

wife," Ranma grinned, wanting to get back at Spider-Man.

"W-what? What did I do?"

"Wow, the whole gang's here," Ranma commented as he stepped into the cabin.

He noticed that everyone save for Jean and Cyclops and Storm were there. He

was pretty sure they were up in the cockpit area.

"And it seems like we've got an extra passenger as well," Beast looked up from

his seat.

"Long time no see," Spider-Man gave a wave. He rarely came in contact with the

X-Men, usually doing his own thing around New York City. Every here and there,

they came in contact with one another and worked together but not nearly as

often as expected.

"Hey, kid," Logan said.

"Good to see you again," Spider-Man greeted him.

Of all the X-Men members Spider-Man came in contact with, he and Logan

probably came in contact with one another the most. This was because Logan

didn't always hang out with the X-Men and sometimes left the school temporarily

to do his own thing before finally coming back.

"Hi, I'm Spider-Man," he didn't recognize Asuka.

Asuka was silent for a moment, surprised at the fact that someone would

actually wear a costume like that, "Um, I'm Asuka,"

At that moment, Psylocke appeared into the cabin from the back, changed into

her own clothes. Rogue, whom had been aware that Psylocke had been wearing a

dress, and thought up ahead to bring her her outfit.

Asuka narrowed her eyes toward Psylocke before turned her attention toward

Ranma and gestured toward the open seat next to her, "Ranma, you can sit here,"

"Thanks," Ranma said, taking his seat.

Asuka gave Psylocke a grin before turning her attention toward the window to

gaze out at the city below.

"So, what's the plan?" Ranma asked, "How come we're leaving for the

Philippines now?"

"We have reason to believe that the auction will be attacked," Beast said,

"Recently, the Nevada supply depot that has a large storage of adamantium and

the military base located in Antarctica that oversees the extraction of

Vibranium used to make adamantium have been attacked,"

Ranma said, "Hey, didn't you mention those two locations to me when I asked

for help in getting adamantium?"

"That's right," Beast nodded, "It seems like someone is interested in

acquiring adamantium much like yourself,"

"You have any idea who?" Ranma asked.

"There's lots of people that would be interested in it," Beast stated, "But

the problem is that not everyone can make it useful. It's very hard to mold

adamantium and only few people have the resources and power to make use of it,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Who can do that then?"

"Very few people," Beast said, "Keep in mind that the components required for

the creation of adamantium is a secret. Very few people know of it. Heck, it's

pretty surprising that I managed to find out,"

"So to whom can this adamantium be useful?" Ranma asked.

"Well, adamantium can be useful to everyone," Beast said, "Be it for something

like armor or weapons. But to the people that can actually make it into

something useful, that narrows down our suspects. Someone really ambitious would

most likely go through such lengths. Someone like Apocalypse could be behind

this?"

"Apocalypse? You've gotta be kiddin' me, right?" Ranma laughed, "That's a real

name?"

Ranma found this extremely funny because he actually took part in several of

those things, apocalypses that is.

"Does he have a friends?" Ranma grinned, "Lettme guess, they're names are

Doomsday and Judgment Day?"

"It doesn't seem likely to be him though," Beast said, "If it were, he

would've simply sent in his Four Horsemen since he usually has them do his dirty

work. It was said that human and mutants attacked the bases, so it probably

isn't him, but we need to keep an open mind,"

"Apocalypse? Four Horsemen? I'm sorry, but even though I dunno what's going on

or who these people are, the names I find funny because names like that actually

refer to stuff back on my world," Ranma commented.

Beast cleared his throat, "Then again, the bases were basically destroyed.

That's something along the lines of Magneto,"

"But the reporter indicated that well-armed humans and mutants attacked the

bases," Storm commented.

Beast shrugged, "I wouldn't put it past him. He may hate humans, but I

wouldn't put it past him to simply hire them as mercenaries to do his dirty

work. Last I remember, Magneto doesn't know how to create adamantium. Him going

after the adamantium storage gives good indication that that's the case.

However, with the attack of the Antarctic base for the Vibranium, there's a good

chance he somehow learned how to make it. What he could be using it for, I do

not know,"

"Any other guesses?" Storm asked, "Could there be anyone else?"

"Hm, for all we know, it could also be the Canadian government," Beast said,

"Considering it that government that gave Logan his adamantium-coated

skeleton. Heck, it could be our own government for all we know. All of this

could be some elaborate ruse to move the adamantium and Vibranium to some other

location, but for what reason, we have no idea,"

"The government, huh?" Ranma smirked, "Heh, it sounds pretty complicated,"

"Well, the government created the Sentinels," Beast said, "Maybe the

government might want to create some new Adamantium-based Sentinels,"

The cabin became silent with tension.

"What are these Sentinels?" Ranma asked, "Sounds serious,"

"They're these giant hundred foot tall robots that were designed to search and

destroy mutants," Beast stated, "Alone, they're not excessively hard to beat.

But when they attack in force, that a whole other story,"

"Robots?" Ranma smirked, "Sounds kinda like a glorified boomer to me,"

"Boomer?" Beast asked.

"Nevermind," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

"So, who do you think it is?" Ranma asked, "Could it be this Apocalypse guy?

Could it be the government? Or could it be this Magneto guy?"

Everyone looked at one another.

"Well? Who could it be?" Ranma asked.

He had been their enemy ever since the X-Men had been founded.

They all seemed to reply in unison.

"Magneto,"

Asuka followed closely behind Ranma as he and everyone exited the Blackbird.

The Blackbird had touched down in a small open field surrounded by a thick

forest. The location of the building where auction was going to be taking place

was over ten miles away. It was said to be an old church located near the

outskirts of a suburban area.

They were expected to fly the rest of the distance under the cover of night.

She felt nervous about who this Magneto person was.

"This Magneto guy, he can control magnetism?" Asuka asked, worried.

Beast nodded, "Yes,"

"But magnetism basically exists everywhere," she said, "Does that mean-"

"Yes," Beast said, "That's what makes him such a powerful mutant. His dream is

different from that of Xavier's. Where Xavier's ideals are that humans and

mutants can one day live in peaceful co-existence, Magneto's ideals are that

humans are inferior to mutants and that humans should be ruled over by mutants,"

"Y-you guys can beat him, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Beast said, "It usually takes almost everything we've got to do so but

we have beaten him,"

Asuka gulped.

Ranma placed a hand on the top of her head, grinning, "C'mon, whatcha got to

worry about? We've probably been through much worse. Also, keep in mind I'm

here,"

"I guess you have a point," she felt a sense of relief.

He watched as Rogue took to the skies, Logan and Beast hanging on each arm.

Storm carried with her Psylocke and Nightcrawler. Jean took to the skies,

Cyclops and Spider-Man taking to the skies right next to her.

"Oh man, Cyclops and Spider-Man can fly?" Ranma was surprised, "Wow, you learn

new things every day it seems,"

"Actually, I think it's her special powers," Asuka commented, "Doesn't she

levitate stuff with telekinesis? She's probably using the same thing to do that

to herself and Cyclops and Spider-Man,"

"Oh," Ranma bonked himself on the top of his head, "I forgot,"

Ranma crouched down, his back toward Asuka.

"What, you're going to piggy-back me?" she asked, blushing. The thought of him

giving her a piggy-back ride always made her blush. It was much like riding a

bike in that she would be involuntarily rubbing a certain part of herself

against Ranma.

Ranma said, "Yeah,"

"But what about your wings?" she asked.

"I don't feel like flying," Ranma said.

"W-what? You mean you're going to carry me?" she asked, "They said it's, like,

ten miles to the auction,"

"I know," Ranma smiled, "It's not like I need to fly. You know that,"

Asuka shrugged, "Fine. It's up to you,"

Ranma took off through into the woods.

new stuff 7/19

Ranma and the others came to a stop just on the outskirts of the city. They

had a clear view of the old church looming in the sky just across from a large

open field. To the right of the church was what looked like a large abandoned

apartment complex. To the left of the church was a large abandoned warehouse.

"I-I can't believe you just ran the entire distance and through a thick

forest," Beast commented in awe.

"And carrying Asuka on my back," Ranma added with a grin.

"And carrying Asuka on your back," Beast acknowledged.

"Is that the building?" Ranma asked, jerking a thumb toward the church.

Asuka was still on his back and wondered if she should asked to be put down

because it felt silly to be in a piggy-back ride position on him while he stood

around.

Right by the church was a giant semi-truck where people could be seen

unloading boxed items into the church via the front entrance.

"As conspicuous as that looks, the fact that its in a very remote and

abandoned area of the city meant it would most likely go unseen," Beast

commented.

"Those are probably some of the items that are going to be going on bid at the

auction," Jean said.

Ranma smirk, "Do you think the vibranium is also in the truck? Cause if it is,

I'm down with just running across the field, knocking those few people out,

grabbing the loots, and booking,"

"Ranma, are you really a 'good guy' as you claim yourself to be?" Psylocke

asked, "Because that sure isn't something a 'good guy' would do,"

"Logan, how about you and I do that?" Ranma asked, "I'll buy you a six-pack

beer afterwards,"

Logan looked like he seemed to be entertaining the notion of doing so.

"Logan," Jean said to him.

"Jean's right," Logan said reluctantly, "We're suppos'ta be here to observe,"

Ranma said, "Yeah, we're supposed to observe and make sure nothing happens to

the Vibranium. I dunno about you, but it's probably a whole lot easier to just

steal the Vibranium and run away. That way, should this place be attacked by

this Magneto guy you're expecting, there'll be no vibranium for him to steal

because, guess what, we stole it before him. I think my preventive measure is

much better,"

"Gotta agree with y'there, bub," Logan liked Ranma's way of thinking.

Actually, he always liked his way of thinking.

"No," Cyclops said, "We can't do that,"

"What, is there some kinda 'good guy' rule book you guys must follow?" Ranma

smirked, "I think it's much better to steal the stuff and worry about the people

coming after us for it than to worry about having to prevent whoever from

stealing it. All this 'good guy' crap is kinda stupid,"

"Is this where your 'I'm usually a good guy. I'm only a bad guy when it's

convenient' mentality is coming into mind?" Jean asked, a bit angry at Ranma,

"Is this one of the time when being a bad guy is more convenient?"

"Hell yeah," Ranma said, "So what if a few guys get knocked out in the

process. The ends justify the mean,"

"We can't allow you to do that," Cyclops said.

Ranma gritted his teeth, swearing to himself.

"I guarantee this is a bad idea," Ranma muttered. He turned toward Cyclops,

"Well, Mister Leader, what should we do?"

"We wait," came his reply.

Ranma muttered under his breath, "What a shitty command,"

There was a moment of awkward silence as everyone regarded Ranma, wondering if

he was going to deliberately disobey Cyclops' order and go do his own thing.

They knew, deep down inside, that if he did, they would have to try and stop

him, even if it was probably impossible.

"Fine, I'll wait," Ranma muttered.

Everyone seemed relieved hearing that.

Asuka seemed nervous, but because of other reason.

"Um, Ranma, you can put me down now,"

Asuka slept soundly as she leaned up against a tree. It was odd why she was

asleep because she had slept a good amount recently.

Storm's cape was covering her, keeping her warm.

Several hours had passed and it would be dawn soon. The whole time they were

there, they had simply watched as truckload after truckload of items were

unloaded into the abandoned church.

"Damn, how much crap have they unloaded into that church?" Ranma muttered.

"Most of the stuff being unloaded is for the church," Beast commented, "It's

purely for decorative purposes. Keep in mind that its an auction, and people

will be here to bid on items. Even though they'll be entering an abandoned

church, they don't want to bid in a room that looks like an abandoned church.

All the stuff's there to mask the interior so it doesn't remind them of the

outside,"

"What kinda people can be found in these kinda auctions?" Ranma asked.

"Usually rich people with too much money on their hands and in serious need of

hobbies," he answered, "These kind of auctions, especially ones that occur

around the Philippines and Madripoor are generally for items like bombs and guns

and adamantium and, since there will be no adamantium at this auction,

vibranium,"

"You know what's going to be on the block for bidding, right?" Ranma asked,

"Can you list some of the stuff that will be out for bidding?"

"Most of the stuff will mostly appeal to collectors, nothing of consequence,"

Beast said, "If I recall correctly, they could bid on things like paintings and

other miscellaneous artworks. Higher up the ladder would be old guns probably

from before long ago, like first generation pistols as well as bolt action

rifles. Bombs and explosives we don't have much to worry about because they're

decommissioned and the warhead removed,"

"How do you know?" Ranma asked.

"This is a collectors auction," Beast replied, "This place isn't the kind of

place where you would find future world terrorists,"

"Then why would it be selling vibranium?" Ranma asked.

"Because, it is, afterall, a meteoric ore," he answered, "It's like bidding

for a moon rock or something along the lines. Making adamantium is a secret and

there is a good chance the people don't realize what it could be used,"

Ranma said, "Yeah, but the people might know. What then?"

Beast smiled. He liked how Ranma thought. It seemed he liked to see everything

from every angle, believing what could go wrong, will go wrong.

"Well, then they'll most likely use it to make adamantium," Beast said.

"Like some kinda weapon or such?" Ranma asked.

"As to what, we can only suspect," Beast shrugged, "We can't really assume

it's for the worst. It's like when a person buys a gun. It doesn't necessarily

mean that the person wants to kill someone. It could be for self-defense. The

person could make adamantium for anyway,"

Ranma smirked, "Maybe a cool set of rims for a car. I'm sure people hate

having to worry about their rims scratching up against a curb,"

"Um, right," Beast said, "It could be something like that,"

"All the people that you've deal with that knew how to make adamantium, what

did they usually use it for?" Ranma asked.

"Weapons and armor," Beast answered, "But that's because we're probably the

only people that deal with such things like that,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma said.

"The point is is that we can't assume that anyone interested in vibranium

knows how to make adamantium," Beast said, "And not only that. If the person

does know how to make adamantium, it doesn't necessarily mean he or she would

use it for something bad. Only time will tell and we can't assume so until then.

What I am pretty confident about is assuming that, should the auction get

attacked in the same fashion as those other places, the person wanting the

admantium and vibranium will most likely use it for something really bad,"

Ranma asked, "What time is it? When does the auction start?"

"It'll be starting in a few more hours," Beast said, pointing, "It seems like

the group sponsoring the auction's finished. All that there is left to be done

is probably setting up everything on the inside,"

"A few more hours?" Ranma asked.

He sighed.

Beast pointed toward a small van that had a 'Muta-Gen' logo on its side that

pulled up. He watched as the driver went around the back of the truck and opened

it up. From there emerged two guys holding several boxes. The three of them

carefully headed into the church with the boxes they had.

"That's what we've been waiting for," Beast said, "Actually, that's what I've

been waiting for,"

"Why, what's up?" Ranma asked.

"Muta-Gen is a privately own company that produces those suppressor devices,"

Beast said, "Those are the devices that, when set up, suppresses any mutant

powers when within their field of effect. We need to have those devices disabled

or Jean's and Psylocke's telepathy will be of no use,"

"Oh, and we need them to keep all the people from bidding against me on the

vibranium,?" Ranma asked, "But here's a question. You said that the suppressors

prevent mutants from using telepathy to do what Jean and Psylocke will be doing.

If you disable those suppressor, then wouldn't whatever mutants there are that

are there also be able to use telepathy?"

Beast smiled, "You think really far ahead, don't you?"

"It's got me to where I am now," Ranma grinned.

"Yes, there will be mutants in there," Beast said, "And most of them telepaths

as well. They're also there expecting to do what Jean and Psylocke will be

doing, to get the item they want to bid for for the lowest price. Of course,

they probably never thought far enough ahead to realize that other people would

realize that and would've put suppressors in place to prevent such a thing,"

"Ah, so I guess they're small-fry telepaths, huh?" Ranma said, "They probably

aren't aware that the sponsors of the auction are smart enough to put up

counter-measures against such things,"

"Right," Beast said, "Luckily for us, Jean and Psylocke's telepathic abilities

combined can block out whatever other telepathic abilities any of the other

mutants try to use. Only Professor Xavier is more powerful, and he's not here,

and he's on our side,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma smiled.

"I counted seven boxes," Beast said, "Each box contains a suppressor,"

Beast produced a blueprint of the church from one of his pockets.

"Based on that information, there's only one way those suppressors can be

placed throughout the church to work at optimal efficiency," Beast pointed

toward a certain blueprint, "This here is a blueprint of the church and the

locations of where the suppressors are most likely to be for optimal

effectiveness,"

"Are you sure they're going to be there?" Ranma asked, skeptic.

Beast shook his head, "I'm not sure, but I'm fairly sure they will. What

you're asking me is something like, say, pretend you have a television. Where

would a person most likely be to watch it? From the front. Not the side or back.

It's similar along the lines,"

"I understand," Ranma gave a shy smile, "I'm sorry I doubted you,"

Everyone, save for Asuka since she was asleep, gathered around the blueprint.

"Man, why didn't they just use eight of those devices?" Ranma muttered,

"Wouldn'tve it been easier to just put one on each corner of the church? Because

of this, that means there's gonna be one located in the uppermost rafters,"

"How do we disable these devices?" Cyclops asked.

"I'm familiar with Muta-Gen suppressors," Beast said, "They only made two

versions of it. All you have to do is disconnect the two wires you'll see right

on the top of the device,"

"Are there any triggers on it?" Cyclops asked, "Will any alarms go off if its

being tampered with? You said there are two versions. What about the other

version?"

Beast said, "The other version are for permanent locations. To disable them,

all you have to do is shake them violently. The ones being used are portable

suppressors,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Sounds like all you need to do to disable these

suppressors is to basically break them,"

Beast nodded, "More or less, yes,"

"Cool, I figured it'd be some stupid stuff like you see on television, like

the crap some people hafta do to disable bombs," Ranma grinned, "That's the way

things should be,"

After a moment, Ranma realized something.

"Question, I'm supposed to bid at the auction, right?" Ranma asked, "Exactly

how am I gonna get into the auction? From the sounds of things, it seems like

this is some exclusive invite-only kinda thingie,"

Beast smiled, "That's no problem. Jean can use her telepathy to get you in.

The suppressors will be disabled by then so it'll be no problem for her to get

you in,"

"Cool," Ranma said, "So, what's the plan, Mr. Leader? Who does what?"

Cyclops smirked, "Well, Storm you'll be create a dense fog to mask our

approached. I noticed on the blueprint there's stairway that leads to and from

the rooftop. That'll be our entry point. Spider-Man, because your powers won't

be affected, you'll be on point,"

"W-what? I will?" Spider-Man was surprised to hear.

"Not unless you don't want to," Logan said in an almost taunting manner,

"Maybe you should leave this to the professionals,"

Spider-Man laughed, "Whatever you say, Logan. Okay, I'll take point,"

Cyclops pointed onto the blueprint, "Jean and Psylocke, you two can observe

the auction from the rafters here, the columns will keep you hidden. Logan and

Spider-Man, you two will go after and disable the suppressors. The rest of us

will wait around here in case anything happens,"

"And me?" Ranma asked, jerking a thumb toward the still sleeping Asuka.

"You just wait here with us until the right time to approach the church

pretending you're there as one of the invited bidders," Cyclops said, "When the

bidders show up and go into the church, you'll just blend in with them. Jean

will do the rest of getting you in,"

"And Asuka?" Ranma asked.

"She can stay with us," Cyclops said, "We'll take care of her,"

"Nope," Ranma said, "I don't think so,"

"W-what?" Cyclops was surprised to hear.

Ranma said, "No offense, but should the church get attack while I'm in the

church instead of before, you won't be able to protect her like I can. I'd

rather have Asuka with me,"

The group was silent.

"Very well," Cyclops said after a moment, "She can go with you,"

Asuka stirred when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Asuka, wake up," she heard Ranma's voice.

Asuka slowly woke up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, "Ranma? What's up?"

"The auction's beginning," he said.

Asuka quickly snapped wide away, looking about.

She noticed that she and Ranma were alone by a tree. Off to the side she saw a

group of several X-Men watching them hidden among the trees. She noticed Logan,

Spider-Man, Jean, and Psylocke weren't among that group.

There was also a very thick fog making it hard for her to see far in front of

her. Heck, she couldn't even see the church anymore.

"It's Storm's fog," Ranma answered the question in her head, "Logan and

Spider-Man and Jean and Psylocke had already infiltrated the church around ten

minutes ago,"

"W-what do we do?" she got up to her feet.

Ranma took Storm's robe off her and said, "What else? We go into the church,"

He turned around and threw the robe to Storm as she waited nearby.

"Um, o-okay," she said.

"Don't worry, everything'll be fine," he said.

That seemed to calm the young girl down.

They both walked across the field in the dense fog.

"I really hope things turn out okay," Beast commented, "I hope the auction

doesn't get attacked like those bases on the news,"

"I hope so, too," Cyclops said.

Ranma's lack of worry seemed to calm Asuka considerably as the two of them

crossed the open field.

"You're awfully calm," Asuka commented.

Ranma paused for a moment and looked in a general direction. Although they

were basically standing in the middle of the field, unable to see anything,

Ranma looked like he was able to see through the dense fog.

I sense some wickedly powerful auras coming from that direction.

"Something the matter?" Asuka asked.

"Nah," Ranma said, continuing walking forward.

"Um, I'm kinda worried," she commented.

"What's there to be worried about?" Ranma said, "We're going to carry out what

we originally intended to do, to bid for the vibranium. Of course, one thing

worries me, exactly how am I gonna pay for it? It's not like I have much money.

Oh well, it don't bother me much,"

"Do you think the church's going to get attacked?" she asked nervously.

"I really dunno," he shrugged, "If it doesn't get attacked, that's great. But

if it does get attacked, well, that's great also,"

Asuka narrowed her eyes toward him, "How come I've got a funny feeling you'd

rather the place get attacked than not?"

Ranma shook his head, "No, you've got that wrong. I don't want the place to

get attacked if it means people are going to get hurt or even killed. But if

people aren't going to get hurt, except for the people that do the attacking,

throw whatever you've got at me. I'll be ready,"

"And what do you think are the chances are that?" she asked.

"Slim to none," Ranma said.

Ranma and Asuka could see the church as it slowly started to come into view

through the fog. As they did, they caught sight of cars parked in front of the

church as people were climbing out.

"Seems like we're right in time," Ranma said, "Those cars are from the

people,"

Ranma paused again to look away from the church.

"Something looks like it's bothering you," Asuka said.

Ranma scratched his head, "No, not bothering me. Piqued my curiosity,

definitely. There's someone coming from that direction that has some wickedly

powerful battle aura,"

Asuka became visibly nervous, "T-t-there is?"

"Don't worry, everything'll be all right," Ranma touched her shoulder and gave

it a gentle squeeze.

"I-I hope so," Asuka said.

Ranma stood where he was, basically in the middle of the sidewalk, curious as

to what the approaching presence was. He stood right in front of an abandoned

building located next to the church. Behind him was the church, far enough

behind him that the fog made it impossible for anyone to know it was there

unless they knew of the area.

They stood there for a good minute before a figure could be seen slowly coming

into focus through the fog.

"Whoa," Ranma was surprised.

Walking in the direction of the church was what looked like a giant of a man.

As the giant got closer and closer, he seemed to get bigger and bigger.

Ranma noticed the giant looked to be around eight feet tall, a very tall man

indeed. But what really surprised him was the sheer mass of the guy. He looked

to weigh somewhere around the lines of a thousand pounds of pure muscle, his

forearms as thick as Ranma's entire waist. The guy looked like he was wearing

some red armor that protected his torso and legs and these red band-like rings

around his biceps and forearms and knuckles. Part of the armor was this odd

dome-like helmet that seemed to cover most of the man's face except for his eyes

and mouth.

"R-Ranma," Asuka instinctively stepped to the side and behind Ranma as she

regarded the man.

The man stopped in front of Ranma. Little did Ranma know that standing before

him was Juggernaut. Sporting a dome-like helmet that protected him from

telepathic attacks on his mind, Juggernaut was basically invulnerable to all

physical attacks and possessed immeasurable strength. This made him what many

humans and mutants considered to be 'an unstoppable force'.

"Hello," Ranma said politely, "You here for the auction as well?"

Juggernaut looked down at the puny Ranma standing before him and the terrified

girl behind him.

"Weaklings small like you should move out of the way if you know what's good

for you," Juggernaut said in a cold voice.

"Dude, you didn't hafta go and say something like that," Ranma said in

annoyance.

Juggernaut extended a finger forward to flick Ranma away like the tiny bug he

was. To his surprise, Ranma leaned back at the last second as Juggernaut's

finger flicked right by him, missing him.

"That's one," Ranma said, narrowing his eyes, "Care to try that again?"

Juggernaut seemed to be momentarily surprised that, whoever this person was,

easily dodged his attempt to flick him away.

He quickly composed himself and made a swatting motion toward Ranma with a

hand, intending to swat him and his companion away from him. Once again, to his

surprise, he missed as Ranma grabbed Asuka in his arms and back-stepped.

"That's two," Ranma said, starting to get really angry.

Ranma gently placed worried Asuka down to the ground.

"Just wait here," he said in a very gentle voice, "I'll be right back,"

"Um, o-okay," she stammered.

She watched as Ranma turned his attention back toward the giant man and walked

back up to him. It was shocking the size difference. Ranma, although not all

that tall but not all that small either, only stood up to the man's sternum, if

that.

Ranma walked up to the man, he grinned, "One more and you go down,"

Juggernaut, annoyed, cocked his arm back and punched at Ranma's head.

Ranma waved a hand in front of him as an AT Field formed in front of him.

Juggernaut's fist crashed into it with such force that even Ranma was surprised.

"Nice punch," Ranma said, "Well, that's three. Now it's my turn,"

Ranma darted a finger out toward his opponent's body, hitting the his sleep

pressure points.

"Have a nice nap," Ranma said, grinning.

Ranma expected the giant to suddenly fall to the floor unconscious. However,

the man did no such thing.

An awkward second passed as Ranma realized something.

"Oh yeah, you're wearing armor," he laughed.

Juggernaut tried to rain a giant fist down on the top of Ranma's head as Ranma

laughed.

Ranma wanted none of that as he quickly dashed forward and underneath

Juggernaut's legs, pivoting around to face his back.

"Feel the pain of a thousand deaths!" Ranma shouted with a grin, "Super Ass-

Poke!"

Ranma entwined the fingers of both his hands together, leaving only the index

finger extended forward.

He shot both index fingers forward, poking his index finger hard at

Juggernaut's rectum.

"Argh!" Juggernaut shouted, grabbing at his backside, his body arching

forward and becoming stiff as he seemed to become completely consumed by the

pain, standing on the tips of toes.

Juggernaut's eyes widened as he suddenly felt this searing burning sensation

coming from his anus, he had never felt such a pain before and he didn't like it

one bit at all. The pain became excruciating as it seemed to intensify

exponentially.

He suddenly found himself falling down toward the ground as Ranma executed a

perfect sweep, kicking out both of Juggernaut's legs. The impact of Juggernaut

crashing to the ground crated a small crater underneath him.

Ranma quickly ran over and on top of Juggernaut, standing on his chest as

Juggernaut seemed to be still disoriented from the pain he was feeling coming

from around the area of his backside.

"What's funny is that you are probably a tough opponent," Ranma grinned, "Too

bad you fucked with the wrong person,"

Ranma rained an open-palm right down on Juggernaut's solar plexus. Although

Juggernaut was wearing armor, the shockwave from the strike seemed to pass right

through the body and hit one of the most vital points of the body.

Juggernaut's eyes widened in surprise for just a second before his entire body

suddenly became limp as he fell into unconsciousness.

Ranma grabbed Juggernaut by the face mask portion of his armor, dragging him

out of the crater. He then quickly, with one hand dragged toward the abandoned

building nearby.

Picking him up, he shoved Juggernaut through one of the boarded windows, not

bothering to removed the boards in the process. Instead, he just shoved him

through the boards where a loud thud could be heard as his unconscious body

landed on the floor on the inside of the building.

Ranma looked around, "Man, thank goodness for the fog. Otherwise, I'dve been

seen. The auction people, if they saw me do that, would definitely be

suspicious. Man, this fog's awesome. I betcha I could beat someone up in the

middle of Times Square and no one would see me,"

Asuka narrowed her eyes at him as she approached him, "Not that you would do

something like that, right?"

"Of course, you know me," he placed an arm around Asuka's shoulder, "Well,

Asuka, you ready to go,"

"Yes," she said, "Um, that was awesome what you did. That guy looked like

really powerful guy but you defeated him easily,"

"Thanks," Ranma smiled warmly.

"But that ass poking technique, which I'm sure you just came up with on the

spot...that has GOT to go," Asuka commented.

Ranma chuckled.

Together, the two headed toward the church.

new stuff 7/21

Ranma paused for a moment as the church was coming into view.

People there for the auction, completely oblivious to what had happened

between Ranma and Juggernaut, could be seen emerging from their limos and

entering the church.

"Is something the matter?" Asuka asked, "What, are you sensing someone's

battle aura?"

Ranma smiled, "You know me too well, Asuka. Yes and no. I sense someone's

aura, but it isn't his battle aura. It's something different, more along the

lines of his power aura,"

"Do you sense that for the X-Men?" she asked.

Ranma nodded, "Well yeah, but I just disregard those. It's just this aura I

sense is much larger and doesn't belong to any of 'em. It's got, like, an 'evil'

feel to it,"

Asuka gulped.

Ranma grinned as he picked up a rock.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Flicking the rock in his hand, "What do you think? I'm gonna throw a rock at

the guy and knock him out. I'm sensing that he's a bad guy so I might as well do

something about it and prevent him from doing anything before he does so,"

"How do you know he's here for the auction?" she asked.

Ranma smirked, "You tell me,"

"I guess you have a point," she concurred.

"I'll just hit him in the head," Ranma said, "It'll probably leave a mark, but

who cares. It'll probably be a lot better than him doing something really bad. I

don't need to see him to know where he is but I know he's hovering still in the

air,"

Ranma cocked his arm back to throw the rock.

Asuka said, "Wait, if you knock him out, wouldn't he fall down to the ground?

He could hurt himself or even get killed from the fall,"

Ranma stopped his throw in mid-swing and looked at Asuka.

"Damn, you're right. I never thought of that," he said, "Wait, I'll just catch

him,"

Asuka shrugged, "I guess that could work. Where on the ground would the guy

fall?"

Ranma pointed, "Right there, on the steps in front of the church. Damn, that

sucks. If I catch a guy falling from the sky right in front of everyone, or

cover will be blown, whatever cover that is,"

"Um, maybe we should leave him alone," she said, "Maybe he's here to bid as

well. Maybe he wants something else and isn't after the vibranium,"

Asuka nodded, "Right. Maybe he is,"

"But then again, I sense an evil aura to him," he stated, "I'm fairly sure he

intends to attack the church,"

Asuka looked around.

She pointed toward a metal bench, "Hey, how about that bench? Why not throw

that at him?"

Ranma scratched his head, "Well, that'll knock him out as well but there's

still the problem of him falling we've gotta worry about,"

"Just hit him with the bench hard enough that he ends being sent wherever the

bench is headed," she said, "That way, since the bench will by arching through

the sky, when it hits him, he will end up landing on the ground a good distance

away where you can catch him,"

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Ranma smiled.

Asuka watched in a sense of disbelief. She watched as he walked over to the

metal bench and ripped it out to the ground, his face showing no indication that

it took any effort for him to do so.

Ranma grinned as threw the bench into the air, it disappearing into the dense

fog. He smirked as he wondered if his target would ever know what hit him.

"Ranma," Asuka said, realizing something.

"Hm?" he asked.

"Aren't you supposed to catch the guy when he falls?" she asked, "

"Oh yeah, I forgot that," Ranma said.

He broke out in a sprint toward the side, intending to run around the front of

the church in the cover of the dense fog in a semi-circle so no one could see

him.

"I'll be right back, Asuka,"

High about the church, man hovered high in the air. His outfit consisted of

red an purple. The church was located directly below him even though he couldn't

see it through the dense fog.

Wearing mostly red save, for the purple gloves and purple cape, and sporting a

helmet that helps protect him from telepathic attacks that was geared at

attacking his mind, this man was known as the 'Master of Magnetism', better

known as Magneto, one of the strongest mutants in the world.

A man with the ideal that mutants should rule over the humans, he was the X-

Men's most formidable nemesis. Alone, he could basically take on the entire team

of X-Men. Only by removing his helmet and attacking him telepathically did X-Men

stand a really good chance of defeating him.

A man not really considered 'evil', his ideals were different from that of the

X-Men. It was these ideals that makes him such a worrisome nemesis of the X-Men.

Magneto was a brilliant man. He knew exactly where the fog had come from. It

had come from Storm. That meant the X-Men were nearby.

He smirked as he knew their presence would be of great use to him in acquiring

his goal, the vibranium that was to be sold off to the highest bidder at the

auction within the church.

Magneto was not alone. He and Juggernaut had reluctantly joined sides.

Actually, it was more along the lines of Magneto having manipulated Juggernaut

into helping him out.

Juggernaut, the half-brother of Xavier, hated him with a passion, so much so

that he would actively attack the X-Men simply because they were the students of

his. Magneto had anticipated that the X-Men would be here and managed to

convince Juggernaut to help him in his task while being able to once again

battle with the X-Men.

Magneto found himself growing impatient, wondering what was taking Juggernaut

so long in creating the distraction he needed. Juggernaut's job was to simply

attack the church and the go distract the X-Men. While this was happening,

Magneto would head into the church to find the vibranium he needed. It was that

simple.

He would remain patient for another minute. If Juggernaut did not create the

needed distraction, then so be it. It wasn't as if he needed that lumbering

brute's help anyway. His distraction would merely make things a bit easier for

him.

He glanced toward the side and noticed a large metallic object suddenly emerge

from the dense fog heading straight toward him.

"What the-" was all he managed to say.

The bench slammed right into the shocked Magneto. Of course Magneto was

shocked, why wouldn't someone seeing a flying bench be shocked?

It hit him with such force that it instantly knocked him unconscious right

where he hovered. He ended up being sent bodily through the air, the bench's

momentum carrying him along with its flight path.

He didn't stand a chance.

On the other side of the church, a large mutant waited for Juggernaut to

initiate the attack. He was a known criminal in several countries and

professional assassin, this man was known as Sabertooth. He was a ferocious

mutant in that had mutant powers very similar to Logan's, that being super-fast

healing and heightened senses. Many times he and Logan fought each other, and

many times they tried to kill each other. Unfortunately, their super-fast

healing made it extremely hard for either of them to kill each other outright.

Sabertooh felt himself growing very impatient and wanted to just charge the

church and start attacking anyone in his path. But he needed to wait. Magneto,

the man whom hired him, had said to wait for Juggernaut to initiate the attack.

When the X-Men came out of hiding to deal with him, that would give him the

opportunity to flank the team and attack them from behind.

The fog that surrounded him made him all the more happy that Magneto's

anticipation of the X-Men being there was correct. He recognized this tactic.

The X-Men had had Storm generate a dense fog to hide their location.

Sabertooh smirked, very eager for the fierce battle to come between him and

Logan.

He had no intention of attacking the entire team of X-Men. He knew he would go

straight after his eternal nemesis, Logan. Juggernaut could have his fun with

the rest of the team. Sabertooh wanted Logan.

Sabertooth's acute sense of hearing allowed him to hear a loud thud-like noise

come from the air, as if something hard had hit into a body. Because of where

the location of the noise had originate, he wondered if it was something that

Magneto did.

A sound of a running noise could be heard as it seemed to be getting closer

and closer, as if someone was running straight toward him. It made him wonder if

the thud-noise was the beginning of the attack. If that was true, shouldn't

there be accompanying sounds of panicking humans running for their lives at the

sight of Juggernaut?

He decided to wait a little bit longer.

He caught sight of a man emerge from the dense cloud, running toward him. But

before he actually reached him, he turned around and came to a skidding halt a

short distance from him.

What's going on, Sabertooh thought.

Ranma stood in the expected landing point of where the bench and the unknown

'bad guy' would land. To his expectation, Magneto's motionless body, bench

following closely behind, emerged from the air through the dense fog, exactly as

he had anticipated.

Ranma caught Magneto's unconscious form with one arm, using his other free

hand to catch the falling bench.

"Damn, that worked real well," Ranma chuckled.

He placed the bench down on the ground, giving it a gentle tap so that the

legs of the bench would become embedded down into the ground, giving the bench

an appearance like it had been there in the first place.

He sensed something or someone sneaking toward him from behind. He turned

around to face whoever or whatever it was.

He and Sabertooth faced one another.

"You saw that, didn'tja?" Ranma gave a shy smile, gesturing toward the limp

Magneto dangling over one of his shoulders.

Sabertooth didn't bother to wait for an explanation. Whoever this guy was, he

was dead. He recognized Magneto hanging unconscious over the guy's shoulder. He

must've done something to him. Not that he cared about what the heck happened to

Magneto, Sabertooth still hadn't gotten paid yet and wanted to get paid after

this. If Magneto got killed, as unlikely as that would be, then that meant

Sabertooth would not be paid. He didn't like that.

"Die!" Sabertooth sneered, slashing toward Ranma's chest with his razor-sharp

nails.

Ranma, still holding Magneto, took a step back as the claws missed him

completely.

"Man, what's with the people on this world?" Ranma said, a bit annoyed, "Do

you guys have a thing for violence?"

Ranma stepped back again as the claws missed him again.

"Keep it up, man, and you're gonna find yourself knocked out like your friend

here," Ranma said, assuming Magneto was the guy's friend. Why else would he

attack him so viciously?

As Sabertooth dashed in for a third attack, Ranma pivoted quickly turned

around while still holding Magneto, allowing the unconscious man's legs to hit

his opponent in the face.

Sabertooth was struck hard in the face and staggered toward the side,

momentarily stunned. The attack only stung slightly, the pain disappearing

before he even realized it was even there. He was more surprised than anything

else.

Who the hell was this guy? Where did he come from? Was he an X-Man?

Ranma continued to allow the centripetal force to carry him all the way around

so that he was facing Sabertooth. He gave him a smirk as he gently placed

Magneto down on the bench.

"Care to try again?" Ranma smirked, "This time I have my arms free,"

Sabertooth sneered as he dashed forward, slashing at him again. He found

himself hitting nothing but air as Ranma side stepped his attack, twisting

around as Sabertooth stepped right by him, continuing to pivot until he ended up

directly behind him.

"C'mon, let's see if you can hit me," Ranma said right toward Sabertooth's

back.

Sabertooth tried to swing around to face Ranma, only find Ranma no longer

there, Ranma dashing to quickly toward the side and remaining facing behind him.

As he tried to turn around to face him, Ranma simply dashed toward the side to

remain behind him. After several turns, Sabertooth realized that Ranma seemed to

constantly remain facing his back.

Ranma struck the back of Sabertooth's neck gently, sending the large mutant

falling to the ground unconscious.

He regarded Sabertooth's unconscious form and sighed. Things seemed to be

slowly getting out of hand. First, he bumped into this giant of a man wearing

red armor that attacked him for no reason. Then, he sensed an 'evil' aura and

opted to take the person out before he could do anything bad. In the process,

second person seemed to attack him for no reason. However, he assumed it

probably had to do with that person he knocked out with a bench.

"Man, I wonder if that big red guy and this guy with the claw-like nails are

connected to that 'evil' guy," he wondered aloud.

Ranma shrugged. He didn't really care.

He casually picked up Sabertooth, throwing him over his shoulder. He then when

over to Magneto and picked him up, throwing his unconscious form up over his

other shoulder.

Carrying the both of them over his shoulder, Ranma proceeded to head around

the church and in the direction of where Asuka was.

Asuka nervously paced back and forth where she stood.

She wondered if that giant man that Ranma had shoved through one of the

windows into the abandoned would wake up while Ranma wasn't around. If he did,

she was in trouble.

"Wait, Ranma knocked him out," she felt a sense of relief from the

realization. If Ranma knocked a person out, he was going to stay knocked out.

There were no buts about it.

"Ranma should be back by now," she said nervously.

She suddenly heard a stirring noise coming from the direction of the abandoned

building. It startled her.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she walked over to the open window and

peered in. What she saw scared her half to death. The giant man seemed to now be

conscious and, although disoriented, seemed to be trying to get back up to his

feet.

She yelped in surprise when she heard Ranma's voice come from behind her.

"R-Ranma!" she said, "Y-you're back,"

She noticed Ranma was carrying two people over his shoulders.

"This guy was the guy that was hovering in the air, the 'evil' guy," Ranma

nudged the shoulder with Magneto on it. He then nudged the shoulder with

Sabertooth slung over and said, "This guy saw me catch him and started attacking

me. I assume they're together or something,"

Asuka quickly dismissed that and pointed toward the open window.

"R-Ranma, that guy," she stammered, "H-he's waking back up!"

Ranma seemed mildly amused, showing now signs of concern, "Really? Cool. Kinda

makes me wonder what kinda guy he is to be able to get up from something like

that. I tapped him because I didn't wanna end up really hurting him. It seems

like I can hit him harder. Hee hee,"

"W-what do you plan on doing?" she asked.

Ranma said, "Gonna really smack him around. Keep in mind he attacked me

first,"

He walked over to the window and peered in. Juggernaut had just about gotten

to his feet?

Asuka noticed claw marks running across the length of Ranma's back but said

nothing about it. There were more pressing matters.

Ranma gently placed the two people on his shoulders down on the ground next to

him. He then reached into the window as if he was grabbing something.

"Where do ya think you're going," she heard Ranma say.

A second later, she saw Ranma step back, pulling the giant man by the back of

his neck out through the open window. The giant ended up falling down to the

ground on his back, a shocked look on his face.

Before he could do anything, Ranma quickly stepped on his chest and jammed his

fingers through the front chest portion of Juggernaut's, right around the collar

area.

He yanked the plate right off with a quick tug.

Ranma knelt down as Juggernaut seemed to be in a state of absolute disbelief

and pressed several points around his chest.

"Sleep tight," Ranma said.

Juggernaut's giant body suddenly became very limp as he fell completely

unconscious. He didn't even get a chance to react to Ranma ripping his armor off

before falling unconscious.

Ranma stepped back and off the man's chest, looking down at him as if

inspecting him.

"Man, that's one big guy," he commented.

"I-is he out?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah, I pressed his sleep pressure point," he answered, "He ain't waking up

for a while,"

"But he woke up before," she said nervously.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, but I also hit him fairly lightly. He looked very tough,

but I didn't want to assume so and go overboard and accidentally, like, kill

him. I basically gave him a light hit in the sternum to knock him out. I hadn't

anticipated that he needed to be hit harder to be knocked out. Instead of

hitting him again a bit harder and risk him waking back up sometime later down

the line and causing trouble, I opted to just put him to sleep,"

"Sounds like a good plan," she stated. When she noticed the claw marks on

Ranma's back, she asked, "What happened to your back? Are you all right?"

"Oh, that," he said, pointing toward Sabertooth, "I'm fine. The only thing

that got damaged was my shirt. That guy woke up as I was carrying him and on my

way here. He scratched my back so I put him to sleep,"

"What about him?" she asked, pointing toward the unconscious Magneto.

"He started waking up so I put him to sleep as well," Ranma said, "I pressed

his sleep pressure point after I had put him down to deal with that guy with the

claw-like nails. They're all sleeping soundly and won't be waking up for a

while,"

Ranma pointed over his shoulder toward his back, "I better fix that,"

Asuka watched as the ripped fabric over Ranma's back seemed to miraculously

stitch itself together and close up completely.

"H-how'd you d-do that?" Asuka grasped in shock.

Ranma grinned, "Gee, what do you think? I kinda have these things called

'powers',"

Ranma picked up Juggernaut and walked over to the window, shoving him in

through it, his massive weight creating a loud thud as he fell the distance from

the open window to the floor inside the abandoned building.

He then went over and picked up the second biggest person, Sabertooth, and did

the exact same thing, shoving him through the open window. The sound of

Sabertooth landing on top of Juggernaut made Ranma snicker.

"One more to go," Ranma said, picking up Magneto.

The helmet of Magneto fell off to reveal Magneto's face, the helmet making a

clanking noise on the ground.

"Wow, he looks kinda old," Asuka commented as she noticed the head of white

hair. She walked over and picked up the helmet, "What a strange looking helmet.

I wonder what's it for?"

"Just put it on him," Ranma chuckled, "He's unconscious. If it did do

something, it's not like he's in any condition to tell us so. I assume it's just

for decorations,"

Ranma bent down and picked it up and inspected it, "Man, wouldn't it be funny

if this guy and the X-Men are mortal enemies and this helmet somehow shields out

telepathic attacks? That means if I break it, then X-Men will have a much easier

time beating him should they ever fight him again, should this helmet be one of

a kind that is,"

"Right," Asuka said, "A helmet that shield's telepathic attacks? How does

technology explain that theory?"

"I guess you got a point," Ranma chuckled, handing Asuka the helmet, "Well,

here, put it on him,"

Asuka quickly placed the helmet on. Because of her rush to put it on, she

didn't realized she had accidentally put it on backwards until it was actually

on.

"Oops," she said, about to pull it back off.

Ranma chuckled as she removed it and put it back on correctly.

He shoved Magneto into the window. The thumping sound of him rolling of

Sabertooth and Juggernaut and landing on the floor next to them made him snicker

again.

"Heh, the sound of people hitting the ground sounds funny," Ranma commented.

"Ranma, you're silly," she couldn't help but giggle.

"Let's go," Ranma said, "We've got an auction to attend,"

"Um, okay," she said.

Together, they headed in the direction of the church.

Shortly after they disappeared into the dense fog, a young looking Japanese

woman with dark hair done up in a pony-tail wearing a tight-fitting black

bodysuit emerged from the dense fog.

The woman looked like a normal woman. However, she was anything but normal. A

woman known as Lady Deathstrike, she was an exceptional fighter that constantly

fought against Logan. Her body had been replaced by cybernetic parts and her

skeleton had been laced with molecules of adamantium. In a sense, she possessed

a adamantium skeletal system much like Logan. Her father had created the

adamantium bonding process that made Logan's adamantium-coated skeleton

possible. Lead to believe that Logan was responsible for the process being

stolen, her father killed for the knowledge to do so, she hated Logan with a

passion and was there to try and kill him, to get her revenge for her father's

death. To fight on par with Logan, her body had been turned into that of a

cyborg, adamantium claws replacing her fingernails which could be extended and

retracted at will, similar to Logan's claws. The difference was that unlike

Logan, she had five talon-like claws to each hand when compared to Logan's

three.

Lady Deathstrike was there to fight Logan. She and Sabertooth had reluctantly

allied themselves with Magneto because of what he had told them, that the X-Men

would be nearby. She didn't really care about Magneto and his goal to get his

hands on the vibranium and had different priorities. Led to believe that the X-

Men would be there that day, she decided to help out, wanting a piece of Logan.

She had been only a short distance behind Juggernaut, expecting to join in on

the battle after he attacked the church to lure the X-Men out of hiding. From

there, she would wait and attack them from their flanks, much like Sabertooth

would at the same time from the other side. Of course, much like Sabertooth, she

knew she would automatically head straight toward and attack Logan.

She had waited patiently for the destruction to begin but grew impatient when

nothing seemed to happen. Sneaking out of her waiting spot to get closer to the

church to inspect what was going on, she had caught sight of a man shoving

something into a window.

She looked down at the crater that Juggernaut had caused when landed after

Ranma had executed a sweep kick to his feet. She wondered what had caused it.

Glancing over at the window she had observed the man shoving something into,

she approached it and glanced inward, curious as to what it could have been.

"My god," she said in disbelief.

Lying unconscious on the ground were Magneto, Sabertooth, and Juggernaut.

Although she never associated with them, she knew they would prove to anyone

extremely formidable opponents, especially Magneto. For the guy to have somehow

defeated all three of them, was that even possible? Who was this guy?

"They're sleeping like babies," came a voice from behind her.

Lady Deathstrike was startled at the voice. This was because she couldn't

believe how someone managed to get close enough to her to get behind her. Her

skills as a martial artis means she would have been able to sense him long

before he had even gotten remotely close.

She turned toward the voice and found herself staring face to face with Ranma.

"You!" she said, realizing it was the man she shoving Magneto through the

window.

"What, do we know each other?" Ranma smiled.

"Um, no, we do not," she answered truthfully.

Ranma regarded her for a moment, "Hey, you're Japanese,"

"Yes," she said.

Ranma removed the headset device, grinning, "How're you doing? What's a nice

Japanese girl like you doing in a place like this?"

Lady Deathstrike was silent. Was he playing with her?

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the window and said in Japanese, "Can ya do me a

favor and not tell anyone whatcha saw?"

Lady Deathstrike glanced past his shoulder where she caught sight of the young

girl the seemed to be accompanying him. She looked nervous and weak. And based

on how she seemed to be standing directly behind Ranma gave her an indication

that she must mean something to the guy.

Wanting to get the upper hand to deal with this current situation, she made a

dash toward Asuka. She would use her as a hostage and get him to keep at bay

while she tried to figure out a plan.

Ranma reached out and grabbed one of Lady Deathstrike's arms before she could

take any more than two steps in Asuka's general direction.

"I don't think so," Ranma said, "Don't even think about it. I watch a lotta

movies and wasn't born yesterday to know whatcha plan to do,"

"W-who are you?" Lady Deathstrike struggled to free herself, "Are you with the

X-Men?"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward her. How did she know they were there? Who was

she?

Talon-like claws sprung from the fingertips of Lady Deathstrike's free hand.

She took a swipe at his chest, hoping to be able to seize the element of

surprise. To her surprise, she found her attack barely missing him by inches.

Before she could attack a second time, Ranma seized her attacking arm.

"That a nice trick you've got there, claws coming out of her fingertips,"

Ranma said, "It reminds me of Logan's claws popping out of the back of his

hands,"

A sudden sense of anger started to envelop her at the sound of Logan's name.

She tried to kick at him, only to have Ranma take a step forward making her

stagger for balance, unable to remain afoot on one leg as she tried to kick him.

When she tried again, he stepped again, making her lose her balance again and

have to put her foot back down to regain herself.

When he did it a third time, she realized she was fighting an opponent unlike

any other she had ever fought before.

"I really dunno what's your deal and attacking me, but I'm getting sick of

random people attacking me from outta the blue," Ranma said in an annoyed voice,

"Have a nice sleep,"

He let go of one of her hands and tried to press her sleep pressure points

located right by her chest area. When she didn't suddenly slump forward

unconscious, Ranma became a bit confused.

He tried to press her sleep pressure again.

Lady Deathstrike looked down and caught sight of Ranma's hand on one of her

breasts. She was being groped!

"What the?" Ranma asked himself, "Why dontcha go to sleep?"

"Ranma you pervert!" Asuka shouted toward him when she noticed him grabbing

the woman's breast.

"Why you! I'll kill you!" Lady Deathstrike lashed out at him with her free

arm, scratching at his eyes.

Ranma leaned back, allowing Lady Deathstrike's attack to follow through,

gently giving her seized arm a twist which resulted in her twisting around and

having her back toward him, her arm cranked backward in an awkward, but not

painful, position.

"Maybe the ones on your back will work," Ranma said, extending a hand forward

and touching the pressure points on her back.

When she didn't slump forward as expected, he pressed some other pressure

points right by her backside. There were many places where he could press the

sleep pressure point, and he noticed that none of them seemed to be working.

Lady Deathstrike felt Ranma's hand squeezing her backside. She felt this

overwhelming sense of shock and anger toward her opponent, more anger toward him

than even toward Logan.

"Ah, you have a cybernetic body," Ranma finally realized, "That's gotta be the

only reason,"

She tried to kick backwards at his groin but missed when he let go and step

toward the side.

She turned toward Ranma, a sneer on her mouth.

"I have never felt so mortified in my life!" she sneered with rage, "I don't

care who you are! I'm going to go to the ends of the earth to kill you!"

Ranma held a hand up defensively, "Hold up. Don't go misunderstanding

everythin' and all,"

She slashed at him again, only to have her attack miss as Ranma dashed toward

the side and around her.

"Let's see if your entire body is cybernetic," Ranma said.

Just as Lady Deathstrike tried to slash backwards toward him, Ranma leaned

forward and pressed a point on the back of her neck while simultaneously blowing

in her ear.

A massive orgasmic rush of pleasure surged through her body. It gave her the

sensation like her body had just exploded with pleasure, a sensation of warmth

surrounding her. She ended up falling to the ground and curling up in a fetal

position, unable to comprehend the pleasures she was feeling. It was a sensation

that words could not describe. It was a sensation she couldn't believe existed.

"W-w-what have you done to me?" she asked, blushing a deep shade of red,

feeling this great sense of pleasure and mortification for her body seemingly

reveling in it. It also made her feel extremely guilty, like she had done

something terribly wrong to be able to feel something like this, as if something

that felt that good could had to be the ultimate sin.

"Well, it seems like that pressure point works," Ranma grinned, "Seems like

not all of your body's cybernetic,"

Lady Deathstrike tried to move but couldn't. The pleasure was too intense.

Ranma leaned forward and touched the back of her neck again and blew in her

ear a second time.

Lady Deathstrike's body became rigid from the second wave of pleasure that

enveloped her momentarily before the pleasure finally consumed her, her brain

unable maintain itself in feeling such an intense sensation that it decided to

make her black out.

Lady Deathstrike's body became limp as the pleasures consumed her.

Ranma had a guilty look on his face, "Man, I hope I did the right thing. She

might wake up feeling all messed up after this. I'dve felt less guilty actually

hitting her and knocking her out instead,"

"W-what did you do?" Asuka asked, "She looked like she was in such terrible

pain. Like she was in agony,"

Ranma shrugged, "Agony? Not quite,"

"What was that?" she asked.

"The 'Big-O'," Ranma said.

"I-it was?" her eyes widened, "Y-you mean as in that...um...orgasm pressure

point?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "The first basically made her completely disoriented. The

second one knocked her out cold,"

"Y-you did it twice to her?" Asuka's eyes widened.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. If you do it twice, the person falls unconscious.

Afterall, the sensations the person feels is almost too intense with the first.

The second one pushes 'em over the limit that they pass out,"

Asuka was silent, in a state of shock at what she was hearing.

"Let's just say if you do it a third time," Ranma grinned, "While the person

is unconscious, that person will never wake up. Heh, at least that's one heck of

a way to die,"

Asuka remained silent.

"W-what's going to happen to her?" she asked after a moment.

Ranma picked her up and gently shoved her through the window, a grin on his

face, "What else, she will wake up completely disoriented. And what's really

funny is that she'll end up waking up before the other three. She'll

automatically remember the sensations...and when she sees the three unconscious

bodies lying next to her...she might think she and them did y'know what,"

"T-that's insane,"

Ranma smirked, "Yep,"

Asuka scratched her head, "Why did you use that on her?"

"I couldn't put her to sleep so I used the next best thing," he said, "It

might mess her up for a bit in that she'll probably be constantly thinking of

those sensations for a while to come, but she'll eventually forget about 'em and

resume whatever life she had,"

"I can't believed you used that on her," she stated.

Ranma said, "I saw the thoughts pass through her mind. She was about to go

after you to keep me away from her. With something like that, I'm a bit less

lenient on people. She had it easy because she gets knocked out the fun way and

only hafta suffer some slight side-effects afterwards. Besides, she was one of

the bad guys so it didn't bother me all that much,"

"Still-" Asuka said, "Couldn't you have just asked that she not tell anyone

what she saw?"

Ranma shrugged, "I needed to knock her out. The expression on her face

indicated that she knew one or two or all of those unconscious guys and wouldn't

let it slide. Even if she said she wouldn't tell anyone, she definitely would.

If that happens, our covers blown,"

"For all we know, you could've unwittingly just defeated the people that would

attack the auction," she said.

"All the better," Ranma smiled, "That way, it'll be clear sailing from here on

in getting the vibranium,"

Asuka shrugged, "Whatever. I'm not really going to even bother to analyze the

way you looked at the situation since it'll just gimme a headache,"

Ranma placed a hand over Asuka's shoulder.

"Let's head to the church," he said.

"Are you sure?" she asked, "Or are you going to defeat yet another person?"

Ranma scanned around the area before saying, "No. That's it. There's no one

else to worry about,"

"Okay," she said.

Together, they headed for the church.

Jean and Psylocke, both well hidden from view as hid up in the rafters and

telepathically manipulated the guard at the front entrance to let Ranma in,

wondering what took him so long. He should've been in there around ten minutes

ago and she had started to worry.

Jean watched as he entered the auction. The auction was basically going to

take place right in the main area of the church. The pews had been replace by

individual chairs and the hardwood floor had been carpeted by a red carpet.

There was a podium in the front of the room where the auctioneer would be doing

his or her auctioning of items.

Ranma and Asuka were one of the last people to enter, the room filled near to

capacity with humans and mutants. They took a seat near the back of the room, in

one of the few remaining seats.

As Ranma sat down, he looked straight up toward Jean's and Psylocke's

location.

"It scares me how quickly Ranma located our hiding spot," Jean commented

softly toward Psylocke, "He didn't even scan the room looking for us. It's as if

he knew exactly where we were,"

"We're in the best hiding spot," Psylocke replied softly, "It gives us a

perfect view of the auction while the shadows keep us hidden. I think Ranma

knows that. If I was in Ranma's shoes, I'd most likely believe someone would

hide here if knew people were going to be hiding within the church,"

Jean wondered if Ranma somehow sensed where they were or knew based on

Psylocke hypothesis. Could his sense of his surroundings be similar to Logan's

heightened sense of smell and his ability to locate someone without actually

needing to see them?

Jean closed her eyes and started to concentrate.

"'Asuka, this is Jean, I'm communicating with you telepathically'," Jean said

to her.

"'Um, h-hello'," came the reply.

"'Is everything okay? You two took a bit longer than expected'," she asked.

"'Yeah, Ranma had to beat some people up'," came Asuka's reply, "'I don't know

if they were the people that were going to attack the church, but if they were,

they're not going to anymore',"

"'Really? What did they look like?'" she asked.

"'One was huge and wore red armor and had had a helmet that covered his

head'," Asuka said, "'He was probably around eight feet tall and looked to

weight almost half a ton of pure muscle'. Ranma knocked him out and ditched the

body in the abandoned building next to the church',"

Jean looked toward Psylocke, "I think Ranma fought Juggernaut,"

"What? He beat him alone?" Psylocke was shocked.

"Keep your voice down or we'll be discovered," Jean said.

"'He also beat up this guy that wore this purple and red outfit and had a

purple cape'," Asuka continued, "He also wore a helmet. When his helmet came

off, he had white hair and looked to be around Xavier's age'. Ranma beat him up

also,"

"M-Magneto," Jean's eyes widened, turning toward Psylocke, "That's got to be

Magneto. My god, Ranma fought Magneto and beat him?"

"Shhh," Psylocke said, her turn to quiet Jean down.

"'He also beat up this guy with blond hair and has these claw-like nails',"

Asuka said. She went on to describing Sabertooth's description, explaining his

size, his claw-like nails, and his facial features.

"'That sounds like Sabertooth'," Jean commented.

"'If it is, I wouldn't know'," Asuka said, "And last but not least, he, um,

knocked out a woman that was wearing tight black clothes that had these talons

for fingernails. It reminds me of Logan's except she has five of those claw

coming from where her fingernails are instead of the back of her fist like

Logan's'. Ranma also mentioned something about how she had some kinda cybernetic

body and the sleep pressure point didn't seem to work on her'. Those four people

Ranma beat up before we came in. That's what took us so long',"

"'Only one person has that description, Lady Deathstrike'," Jean said, "'My

god, from the sounds of things, it seems like Ranma defeated Juggernaut,

Magneto, and Sabertooth,'"

"'I wouldn't know'," she answered, "'I have no idea if the people Ranma beat

up and left unconscious in the abandoned building are the ones you mentioned'.

Are they powerful?',"

"'Quite' especially Magneto'," she said truthfully, "'He alone can take out

our entire team. Having Juggernaut there, who is almost every bit as hard to

defeat as Magneto doesn't help one bit. With Lady Deathstrike and Sabertooth

there as well, Logan would have his hands full, and he wa usually the person

that could keep Magneto distracted long enough for the entire team to focus

their efforts on defeating them individually',"

"'Sounds like Logan is some kind of meat shield'," Asuka commented.

"'Meat shield?'," she asked.

"'Yeah, a friend of mine, Nene, uses that term'," she answered, "'It refer to

people that's is there to take the brute of the damage and the X-Men's

opponent's attention so everyone else could attack the opponent without

distraction',"

"'Well, Logan can hold his own. He's not part of our team strictly for

something like that'," Jean said, "'But his presence does help in keeping our

opponents more distracted than others while we do what we do best',"

"'Well, if those were the people, they're all out cold'," Asuka stated,

"'Ranma dumped their bodies in the abandoned building next to the church',"

"'Thanks. I'll go tell the team of what happened. They'll go recover the

bodies so no one will stumble upon them'," Jean said.

"'They'll be out for a while so there's no real need', but if you want, go

ahead'," Asuka said.

Ranma nudged at Asuka's side as they sat next to each other, "What's up? You

look distracted staring straight ahead,"

"Um, I was just 'talking' to Jean," Asuka said softly.

"Oh?" Ranma asked, realizing that Jean must've been communicating with Asuka

telepathically.

"She believes the people you beat up are Juggernaut, Magneto, Sabertooth, and

Lady Deathstrike," she said.

"Who the heck are they?" he asked, "They powerful?"

Asuka nodded, "Jean says that Magneto, that guy with the purple cape, could

take out the X-Men. With Juggernaut and the others there, I don't think the X-

Men stood a chance,"

Ranma chuckled, "I guess I was in the right place at the right time. X-Men

would've been in trouble had I not been here. Heh, they owe me. I'm gonna make

them do something really stupid as a show of gratitude,"

He laughed aloud.

Everyone seated near him turned there attention toward him, wondering what was

so funny.

Ranma gestured toward Asuka, "Um, she told me a joke about how Confucius said

that anyone who farts in church sits on his own pew. Get it? Pew, P-U?"

No one seemed amused and turned their attention away as they waited for the

auction to begin.

Ranma sighed in relief but grinned toward Asuka and nudged at her.

"Man, that was close. Man, wouldn'tve sucked if we made it this far and blew

our cover now,"

Logan and Spider-Man waited on the rooftop of the church.

Having disabled the suppressor devices, all that was left for them to do was

wait outside and hope nothing bad happened. Just behind them was one of the many

colored-glass windows that led into the interior of the church. If anything

started going down, they would be the first to react and join in the battle to

help Ranma.

Actually, now that the both of them thought about it, even though Ranma would

be dead smack in the middle of the chaos, they were pretty sure Ranma would do

fine on his own. Of course, neither of them would hang around outside while

Ranma had all the fun.

Logan looked down at one of the broken suppressor devices in his hands. He had

wanted to bring one back to Beast after all this was done and over with. Perhaps

Beast could come up with an anti-suppressor device to counteract it and have it

somehow integrated with their uniforms. That way, the would never have to worry

about losing their powers in situations like this. If the thought about it, if

someone knew where the X-Men would be, the can easily set a trap by laying out

those suppressor devices throughout an area and activate it when the X-Men

stumbled within their effective area effect.

"That's strange," Logan sniffed at the device.

"What's strange?" Spider-Man asked.

"There are some chemical components in the device that I can smell in the

air," Logan commented.

Spider-Man asked, "What could that mean?"

"I'm not too sure," the hairs on the back of Logan's neck were standing on

end, "But it has me a bit worried,"

"Logan, you, worried?" Spider-Man asked, "Maybe I should be worried. Maybe

you're not the real Logan,"

"Watch it, bub," Logan said coldly.

"I'm just messing with you, Logan," Spider-Man said cautiously, "No need to

get all bent outta shape,"

"'Logan, seems like we've got a situation'," he heard Jean's telepathic voice.

"'Why, what's going on?" he asked.

"'Actually, I think it's more along the lines of a situation that might've

been averted',"

"'Get to the point'," he said.

"'Ranma seems to have bumped into and defeated Magneto, Juggernaut,

Sabertooth, and Lady Deathstrike," she stated.

"What?" Logan said loudly, "When?"

"What what? When what? What are you talking about?" Spider-Man asked.

Logan waved a dismissive hand as if distracted.

"'Ranma knocked all of them out'," she said, "'He dumped their bodies in the

abandoned building next to the church. Can you go and check it out to see if

it's them?'"

Logan grinned, "'Oh, I'll be more than happy to',"

"'I assume you're not going to murder them while they're unconscious," Jean

said.

"'I'll try not to',"

"'Logan!'"

"'Fine fine. I'll just go and check it out. We can figure things out later',"

Logan turned toward Spider-Man, "Jean just telepathically told me Ranma took

out, get this, Juggernaut, Magneto, Sabertooth, and Lady Deathstrike,"

"What? When? I didn't hear anything," Spider-Man said, "How's that possible?

You'd think you'd at the very least hear something going down. The only thing I

heard so far is people down bellows exiting their cars and heading into the

church,"

"I did hear a thud before," Logan commented, referring to the sound he had

heard when Magento had been hit by that bench when he had been hovering above

the church.

"Well, what does Jean want us to do?" Spider-Man asked.

"We're going to check it out," Logan said, "And see if they really are the

people Ranma's knocked out,"

Logan and Spider-Man walked over to the edge of the church facing the

abandoned building. Because of the dense fog, they couldn't see anything. They

looked down below to see if anyone was around to see them make their way across

the street to the building. When they noticed no one was around, they both

jumped down to the ground below and ran across the street.

They noticed that all of the windows were boarded up except for one.

Running up to the window and peering in, Logan and Spider-Man were shocked to

see Juggernaut, Magneto, Sabertooth, and Lady Deathstrike lying unconscious on

the floor.

"My God!" both were shocked.

They climbed in through the window. That way, they wouldn't be seen in case

anyone happened to be walking by at the moment.

"R-Ranma took out all of them?" Spider-Man gasped, "How is that even possible?

Look at Juggernaut's armor. It looks like Ranma ripped his armor off,"

Logan crouched down and inspected the tiny holes around the collarbone arean

where the armor was ripped off.

"These look like where Ranma jammed his fingers through the armor to rip it

off," Logan said.

"Man, this is nuts," Spider-Man said, "Where did you find this Ranma guy? For

someone to be able to do that, it's mind-numbing. Thank goodness he's one of the

good guys. Heh, I wonder how surprised Juggy here will look when he realizes

what's happened,"

Logan looked down at Lady Deathstrike and Sabertooth, two of his mortal

enemies. Magneto and Juggernaut didn't sit too well on Logan's list either.

His claws shot out from his fists. He was sorely tempted to kill all four

people right where they lay. It would make his and the X-Men's life so much

easier. Not having to deal with foes like them ever again would make being an X-

Men a walk in the park.

"Hey, what are you going to do?" Spider-Man asked, "You're not going to do

what I think you're going to do, are you?"

Logan smirked, "Maybe. Jean said not to do anything rash, but I think I could

live with her being angry at me for a while for going against her wishes if it

means getting rid of some of our worst enemies,"

"But that's cold-blooded murder you're contemplating," Spider-Man said, ready

to take action if need be, "I can't allow you to do something like that,"

Logan didn't seem one bit intimidated, "Is that a threat? What do you plan on

doing, shooting me with some of your webs? I'm sure by now your webs don't work

against adamantium claws,"

"Enough, Logan," came a voice.

Logan looked over toward the window where he saw Cyclops climbing in.

"Well, look who it is?" Logan smirked.

Cyclops and everyone climbed in through the window, needing to stop for a

moment to stare in shock at the unconscious bodies sprawled out in the room in

front of them. The room was rather large and most likely used to be a living of

the apartment complex that was now abandoned.

"You weren't the only one that Jean told about what Ranma had done," Cyclops

said.

"Dear lord, Ranma really did beat them," Beast said, crouching down to inspect

Magneto's and everyone else's pulses, "They're all out cold,"

He recognized the vitals. They were perfectly stable, like when he had checked

out Psylocke's pulse after Ranma had pressed her sleep pressure point.

"There really asleep?" Rogue asked with a smirk, "Strange how such powerful

super-villains could actually look like harmless babies when sleepin',"

"Well, Mr. Leader, what do you suggest we do?" Logan asked.

"Anything but why you intend which is murder them in cold-blood," Cyclops

said.

Logan shrugged, "I don't see what's so wrong in that. They shouldn't wouldn't

hesitate to do the same thing if it was the other way around,"

"That's what makes us different from them," Cyclops stated, "We're not like

them,"

"That sounds cheesy if you ask me," Logan muttered, "Well, fearless leader,

what do you propose we do?"

Cyclops scratched his head as he tried to figure it out. Exactly what was

someone to do in this situation.

Logan flipped the broken device to Beast, "Beast, you think you can take a

look at this?"

Beast looked at the device, "This is the suppressor. What about it?"

"Have you ever thought of trying to develop an anti-suppressor device?" Logan

asked, "The idea kind of struck me as Spider-Man and I were sneaking around

disabling the devices inside the church. Perhaps you can integrate some anti-

suppressor device with our uniforms and such so that we can never lose our

mutant abilities should we ever end up in a situation where suppressors are

being used?"

Beast said, "That's a good idea but I've never really done research into it. I

don't know if something like that's possible. What you're basically asking that

I make a device that extracts mutant abilities to help nullify the suppressive

effects of those suppressors. I'm not too sure that's possible but I'm willing

to try,"

Logan smirked, "That's all that matters, that you at least try," He stopped to

sniff around, "That's strange,"

"What?" Beast asked.

"I noticed this weird smell coming from all around us that smelled like that

suppressor. It's gone now,"

Everyone looked at one another, wondering if that was some kind of sign.

"You think your sense of smell was getting confused with the device you were

carrying around with you?" Cyclops asked.

Logan said, "I know my senses. Something like that I can easily distinguish

from what I'm holding and what I'm not holding. The air reeked of that smell.

But now it's gone,"

Everyone, always cautious, didn't like the sound of that.

"Ah dunno what that means, Sugah, but Ah'm definitely not one t'doubt Logan's

senses," Rogue commented.

Logan walked over to the window and peered out, making sure the coast was

clear, "I'm gonna go back to the church and keep an eye out on things, in case

something happens. I'll let our competent fearless leader here deal with the

situation at hand,"

Cyclops glared at Logan's back, getting annoyed at his sarcasm.

He turned toward Spider-Man.

"No need to ask," Spider-Man said, "I'll go with him,"

Spider-Man exited the building via the open window.

After they were gone, Beast asked, "So, what should we do? This is a turn of

events that I'm sure none of us had ever expected to happen. And not only that,

what should we make of Logan's sense of smell. He smelled something in the air

but now it's gone,"

Cyclops looked down at the motionless body, "Really, I'm stumped at what I see

before me. I'm just shocked at what I'm seeing,"

Although he was the leader of the X-Men was should always look like he knew

exactly what to do next, with a situation like this, there was no way he could

think straight. He was still flabbergasted from the sight of seeing Magneto and

Juggernaut, both of their helmets still on for that matter, unconscious.

"I can't even comprehend how Ranma ripped the chest plate off Juggernaut's

armor," Cyclops commented, gesturing toward the bare chest of one of their most

formidable foes, "Look, those are finger marks where Ranma must've dug his

fingers through the armor. How is that possible, and with his bare hands?"

Beast said, "I am so glad Ranma's on our side. For him to do this alone, and

no one even noticing since we didn't know about it until Jean told us about it,

it must mean he's a lot more powerful than we had ever suspected,"

"I have to agree," Storm said, "Ranma's so unnaturally strong that it's

actually frightening,"

"Ah agree," Rogue said.

"I'm a bit curious as to exactly how these four came to ally with one

another," Beast commented, "We've never fought against them paired up like this

so why now all of a sudden? It kind of doesn't make sense. And the newest

indicated that they fought in accompaniment of a group of well-armed soldiers,

mercenaries mostly. Where are they?"

"Storm, get rid of the fog," Cyclops stated, "There could be a small group of

soldiers waiting nearby for some kind of sign to attack. For all we know, Ranma

could've taken out these four before any of them had a chance to give off the

sign to commence the attack,"

Storm quickly went over to the window and climbed out. However, as she was

about to take flight toward the sky, she found herself unable to.

"What the?" she was a bit confused.

"Something the matter?" Nightcrawler, whom had been standing by the window,

asked.

Storm looked down at her hands, "I don't know. I think my powers are gone,"

"What?" Cyclops heard as he turned toward her.

Nightcrawler tried to confirm by trying to teleport to the other side of the

window. When he couldn't he turned toward Cyclops, "Hey, we've got a problem

here, both Storm and I seemed to have lost our powers,"

"My god!" Beast realized, "That explains why Logan's sense of smell is acting

funny. He lost his mutant powers so went his sense of smell. The smell of the

suppressor devices he was smelling wasn't a fluke. There are more around here

and they've seemed to have just been activated,"

"What?" Cyclops said, "There are more of those?"

Beast nodded, "Yes, it seems like they're not placed around just the inside of

the church. It seems like they've been placed all over outside the church,"

"How, we've watched them bring in only seven," Cyclops stated, "Could that

mean this is a trap?"

Jean was the first to notice her powers were gone. Psylocke noticed seconds

later. Constantly hearing the thoughts of others and always having to block them

out, Jean noticed it right away when all those thoughts became silent.

"I don't know," Jean said, answering Psylocke's question before she had asked

it.

"Something's definitely wrong," Psylocke commented.

"Head to the roof," Jean stated, "Logan and Spider-Man should be back up there

now after having checked out the abandoned building. Tell them what's going in.

It seems like they haven't gotten all those suppressors,"

"What about you?" Psylocke asked.

"I'm going to stay here," she said, "I can't leave Ranma and Asuka alone.

Hopefully, you guys get everything squared away before the bidding for vibranium

comes up,"

Meanwhile, Ranma seemed completely unaware of what was going on.

"Hey, you think we should bid on some other stuff?" Ranma asked.

"Like what?" she asked, looking at the pamphlet in her hands.

She and Ranma had been given each a pamphlet of what would be on the bidding

block at the auction. There were a wide range of items to be sold, most of them

seemingly valuable to collectors.

Ranma shrugged, "I really dunno. Is there anything in there you're interested

in?"

She shook her head, "No. Not really. They're all antique stuff I don't really

care much about. Besides, exactly how are we going to pay for it? And not only

that, Jean's not going to know we plan on buying something else if we do. It's

more than likely that our very first bid will be overbidded,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "I guess y'have a point,"

Ranma paused for a moment to look in the direction of the front door to the

church. When Asuka noticed this, she started getting nervous.

"Seems like we've got company," Ranma said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Ranma got up out of his seat and quickly headed toward the front entrance and

said in a loud voice, "Everybody, I would like to have your attention please,"

Jean, from the safety of her hiding place, wondered what Ranma was doing. He

was bringing attention to himself.

"Can everyone please make a line toward the back of the church?" she heard him

say, "There's no need to panic. You've got plenty of time. Just leave the church

through the back door,"

When everyone seemed to look at him curiously, not doing as he had stated,

Ranma got angry.

"Get the fuck outta the church!" he shouted, extending a hand toward one of

the stained-glass windows overhead and shot a massive ki-blast through it.

Everyone suddenly panicked as everyone made a break for the back door.

Jean nearly fell from the rafters when she saw the ki-blast. It was nothing

she had ever seen before. It looked like a spherical unstoppable ball of energy,

its heat felt from where she was perched.

As everyone seemed to be in a panic to get out of the church through the

backdoor, Jean glanced up toward the giant hole in the stained-glass window

where she saw Psylocke, Logan, and Spider-Man peering in, confused on what the

heck that was.

"Get away from here!" Ranma shouted up toward them, "Something big's coming

this way,"

At that moment, sounds of bullets could be heard as bullets started entering

the church through the front door, several bullets hitting innocent bystanders.

Luckily, the people that were a part of their group helped them back up and

toward the door.

Ranma turned around and kicked the door front open and ran outside. He noticed

the slowly dissipating fog which led to believe that Storm was in trouble to not

have renewed the dense fog to keep visibility low.

He immediately noticed a large group of soldiers wearing army fatigues forming

a semi-circle converging on his location. He also noticed a large group of

soldiers converging in the direction of the empty building where he had shoved

Juggernaut and the others, were the X-Men were.

As bullets whizzed by him, he wondered how come he wasn't seeing Cyclops'

optic blast shooting out from the windows to ward those attackers off. He knew

the X-Men were in the building because Asuka had told him that Jean had told

them to check out that location.

Knowing that people's lives were in danger, he quickly crouched down and

punched the concrete stairs that led to the entrance. He then picked up a

handful of tiny broken pieces of concrete and proceeded to throw them at the

converging soldiers. His aim true, the rocks ended up hitting each soldier right

in their weapons, shattering it to pieces from the impact, rendering them

useless. Within a span of a few seconds, Ranma destroyed the weapons of every

single soldier converging on his location.

When they realized they were weaponless, they started running away.

He turned in the direction of the soldiers converging on the abandoned

building and did the same, smashing their weapons with well-aimed rocks. Before

long, they ran away.

He glanced way down the field where he sensed another wave of attack about to

coming. It seemed like there were several wave of soldiers on their way. When

the defeated first wave got back to the second wave, that second wave would

start attacking and soon.

"Asuka," Ranma called out to her.

Asuka, momentarily shocked at what was going on, turned toward Ranma. Sounds

of gunfire could still be heard even though no bullets were whizzing by her

head.

"Help gather everyone and keep them all going toward back door," he told her,

"If anyone falls, help them up. We don't want anyone getting trampled to death,"

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll take care of our uninvited guests," he said, "There's more on the way,"

He glanced toward the side where he caught sight of Jean as she was rubbing

her back and neck as she got to her feet. It seems like the bullets flying

through the church suddenly had startled her so much that she ended up falling

from the rafters where she was hiding and down to the floor.

"You okay?" Ranma asked with a smirk.

Jean rubbed her side, "Yes, I'm okay. W-what's going on?"

"What do you expect, we're under attack," Ranma chuckled.

At that moment, Logan and Spider-Man and Psylocke landed right by where they

were via the opening in the stained-glass window.

"Man, this is bad," Spider-Man commented, "This is like Jar Jar Binks from

Phantom Menace bad, and that's really bad,"

"Is that as bad as getting kicked in the balls? Cause that's REALLY bad,"

Ranma smirked, figuring he could be a smartass with the best of 'em.

"Not quite that bad," Spider-Man said, waving a hand dismissively.

"Jean, you're right, all of our powers are gone," Psylocke said.

Ranma looked at the group, "Your powers are gone?"

"I don't know," Jean said, "It seems like there are more suppressors that were

suddenly activated,"

"What does that mean?" he asked, "No mutant powers?"

Jean nodded.

Ranma burst out laughing, "I guess that means you guys are useless, huh?"

"Now's not the time to be joking," Psylocke said, "This church's under

attack,"

"Not at the moment, but they will be," Ranma stated, "Me, I'm gonna go head

over to the other side and see how your friends are doing. We need to regroup

and try and figure out what's going on,"

"What we need to do is find those suppressors and disable them so we can use

our powers," Jean said, "We're not going to be of much help this way,"

"I can help," Spider-Man said, "My powers are different so they're not

effected by those suppressors,"

Ranma ran for the door, "I'm gonna go help them out,"

"What should I do?" Spider-Man asked.

Ranma ran out the door, "Well, if you can, try and take care of the second

wave of people coming toward the church. Be careful because they all seem to

have automatic rifles. Hopefully you can dodge bullets,"

Spider-Man gulped.

This worried him. He had the reflexes to dodge bullets...fired for a long

distance away. At close-range, he was not going to be able to react in time.

What was scary was that Ranma seemed perfectly fine with the concept of dodging

bullets.

Ranma disappeared from view of the door as he headed toward the side to cross

the street to get to the window of the abandoned building.

Spider-Man headed out the door, heading straight to intercept the incoming

soldiers. He needed to do a good job. Innocent people's lives depended on his

success.

"Hey, I just noticed something," Spider-Man paused to commented, chuckling,

"It seems like I'm coming to the aide of X-Men. The X-Men, the entire team of X-

Men need me since I have my powers while they don't. Kinda funny if you ask me,"

"First of all, not all of us are as helpless without our powers as you think,"

Logan said in annoyance, "Remember, I don't need my powers to poke holes in that

spandex-wearing body of yours,"

"It's not spandex!" Spider-Man said as he headed out of the door.

Ranma crossed the street and peered into the window. He was pretty surprised

to see Juggernaut awake and sitting upright as if about to get up to his feet.

"Damn, man, you're tough," Ranma commented in surprise, "You don't stay down,

do you?"

At that moment, Cyclops head peeked out from the side of Juggernaut's body,

"Ranma?"

"Huh?" Ranma was confused.

Everyone seemed to emerge from behind Juggernaut's body. Juggernaut feel back

downward, still unconscious. It seemed like Beast and Cyclops had been holding

Juggernaut in a sitting position so that they could hide behind him when all

those bullets started littering the abandoned building.

Ranma burst out laughing, "You're using Juggernaut as a meat shield. Way to

go, an unconscious man saves the lives of X-Men,"

"He's basically invulnerable," Beast commented, "It was the only thing we

could think of when bullets started flying everywhere,"

Ranma continued to laugh, finding the image of the X-Men taking cover behind

an unconscious man, even if he was near invulnerable, hilarious.

He cleared his throat, "Well, I guess from those bullets, you've realized

we're being attacked, huh? Seems like Beast's assumption that someone was going

to attack the auction is spot on,"

"Our powers are gone," Cyclops said, "There seems to be more suppressors

active around the area,"

"What the heck do you want me to do?" Ranma asked, "It's not like I know where

the heck they are,"

When bullets started flying again, the X-Men were forced to duck behind

Juggernaut again. Knowing they could do nothing for Ranma, he being on the

outside of the building, the prayed that he would be able to take care of

himself and take cover.

Through the hail of bullets, they heard Ranma swearing.

"Will you guys quit goddamn shooting at me?" they heard his voice, "This

shit's getting tiring. It's not like you guys are gonna hit me. And even if you

do, it's not like it's gonna hurt. Jeez,"

After a few seconds, the shooting stopped and Ranma peeked his head back in

the window.

"You guys can come out now, they're all gone," Ranma chuckled, waiting for

them to peek back out from behind Juggernaut, "Heh, seems like I've proven my

theory correct,"

"And what theory is that?" Beast asked.

"You guys've relied on your powers too much," he stated, "That's why you guys

seem at a loss now that your powers are gone,"

"Don't you think that's rather hypocritical of you?" Beast commented, a bit

offended at the commented, "You seem to rely on your powers,"

"Says you," Ranma smirked, "You'll be surprised at how effectively I can throw

rocks,"

"So, is there any possible way to destroy those devices?" Ranma asked, "Can't

Storm make some kind of electrical storm that'll create an electromagnetic

charge or somethin'?"

"That's what I would do, if I had the power to do so," Storm answered.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Oh yeah, I forgot. Sounds kinda funny if you think of

me. You have no powers to destroy the devices. But in order to destroy the

devices, you need the power,"

"That about sums it up," Beast said.

Ranma gestured for Storm to walk over to where he was, "Come over here,"

Storm didn't like Ranma's commanding tone but decided to let it slide.

"I'm gonna transfer my power to you," Ranma said, "That way, you can make an

electromagnetic storm to short out those devices wherever they may be,"

"If you have the power to give me the ability to use my mutant powers, even

though they're being suppressed, how come you don't just create the storm

yourself? It's probably not out of your range of abilities,"

Ranma smirked, "No thanks. I'll leave the weather in your hands. I don't wanna

do it because I might accidentally end up creating an electrical storm that'll

short out the entire world. That's just what we need, a world plunged into the

Stone Age,"

Storm couldn't help but be a bit nervous at that remark. What made her worry

was that he probably could do something like that.

"Okay," she said, "Let's do it,"

"Dontcha think we're moving a bit fast? We haven't even dated yet," Ranma

chuckled.

"How can you joke at a time like this?" Storm was not amused.

"Easy," Ranma grinned, "If you've been through some of the stuff I've been

through, this is a joke,"

Storm climbed out of the window.

Ranma placed a hand on her shoulder, "Here's some of my powers,"

Storm's eyes widened as this massive rush of power seemed to enveloped her,

threatening to overwhelm her. It gave her the sensation like she was evolving

into pure energy, the power she was feeling.

She looked down at herself, to make sure she was still tangible, that she was

still there.

"Okay," Ranma said, "Now everything's up to you. Just make sure you tone down

on your use of powers because it can easily go outta hand,"

Storm allowing her control of the wind carry her up to the skies. To her

surprise, she ended up shooting high up into the sky with such speed that she

almost blacked out from the gravitational force exerted on her. When she looked

down, she found herself several miles above the world.

"Oh my god," she was startled. It usually took her great concentration to push

herself to such extremes as to reach speeds like that.

Realizing that she had a task to carry out, she flew straight down, being very

conservative on her power use, scared that she would hit the ground and be no

more.

When she was only about a hundred feet above the ground, she extended her arms

toward the sky and conjured a massive electrical storm. She allowed it to

generate a very large electromagnetic pulse, hoping it would be enough to short

circuit whatever devices were most likely within a one miles radius of where

they were.

When she was done, she slowly hovered to the ground right where Ranma was, the

X-Men proceeding to climb out of the building via the window.

"It works," Cyclops said, "It seems like all the devices have been shorted,

our powers are back,"

He shot and optic blast from his eyes and across the field to hit a hapless

soldier and knock him out. Glancing toward the side in the direction of the

church, the group caught sight of Logan and Psylocke and a flying Jean emerge

from the church to aide Spider-Man in his one-man battle against all those

soldiers.

Jean seemed to be the most effective member of the group, she using her

telekinetic abilities to whisk all of the incoming soldier's weapons right out

of their arms, as the X-Men charged them and fought them in hand-to-hand combat.

Logan didn't seem to mind punching soldiers with those adamantium-boned fists

of his, most likely breaking his hapless victims' bones in the process.

Rogue was as subtle as a sledgehammer, picking up soldiers and throwing them

into other soldiers.

Nightcrawler seemed to use his bodyweight and teleportation to his advantage,

allowing himself to teleport directly on top of a solder and landing on top of

him, hitting him a few time to knock him out before teleporting away onto his

next opponent.

Beast used his brute strength and speed to incapacitate opponents with

precision, sometimes throwing one soldier into another one.

Spider-Man seemed to be the most impressive to watch in action. From Ranma's

point of view, he had unique fighting style utilizing his extreme agility. He

had a very flexible body allowing him to throw punches and kicks that seemed

impossible with a human body. He executed attacks that, although they looked

like random attacks, seemed to be very effective at keeping his opponents

guessing, not that they could do much even if they could anticipate his attacks.

He even made Ranma snicker a few times when he used his web to bind opponents

before swing them in a circle around and bang them into other opponents.

Cyclops and Storm seemed to be very good at hand-to-hand combat as the slugged

it out with their opponents, dodging and counter attacking. Most of their

attacks led to their opponents slumping to the ground unconscious.

Psylocke's style of fighting was very fluid. She utilized true martial arts

moves and Ranma found himself smiling several times as he watched her execute

perfect counter attacks to certain types of incoming attacks. Heck, he even saw

her use that Perfect Shoulder Throw a couple of times in the process, surprising

him at how fast she could integrate a newly-learned moves into her arsenal of

attacks.

As he watched, something suddenly dawned on him.

"Where's Asuka?" the blood drained from his face.

He quickly sprinted toward the church, sliding to a halt once he reached the

front entrance. Inside, he saw her perfectly safe, standing near the doorway,

watching all of the action. It seems like all the innocent people had managed to

escape the building via the back door and all that remained in there was Asuka.

"Asuka," he said, feeling relieved to see that she was okay.

"Ranma, I got everyone out like you asked," she smiled confidently at a job

well done.

He walked in her direction. As he took a step, a bright light suddenly formed

behind her, its light so brilliant that Ranma instinctively brought a hand up to

shield his eyes.

"What the," he said.

When the light disappeared, it revealed a very large looking man standing

behind Asuka. He sported what looked like purple armor and a large cape. He had

this robotic look to him and had a large arm around the startled Asuka's neck.

"R-Ranma!" Asuka said.

"Asuka!" Ranma said.

"Your powers have impressed me," the man said, "I've been watching you ever

since you saved all those children,"

"Who are you?" Ranma asked. Fearing for Asuka's safety, he made no sudden

moves, "What do you want?"

"You've piqued my interest," the man said, "Your role in saving those children

have impressed me. The powers you possess from they way you seemed to undo

something I have done have impressed me,"

"You did that?" Ranma narrowed his eyes, "You made that building collapse?"

"Whether or not people were killed in the process is trivial to me," the man

said, "I merely wanted the vibranium located underneath that building,"

"Wait, does that mean you're the guy that's been attacking those bases?" Ranma

asked, "What do you intend to do with the adamantium?"

"It is no concern of yours, not unless you're interested in my offer," the man

said.

Ranma narrowed his eyes, "What offer?"

"Your powers have impressed me and, if you show yourself worthy, I shall make

you one of my High Lords," the man said, "I am Eternal and it is inevitable that

I become God. I am giving you the opportunity to become one of my High Lords and

serve by my side,"

"How do I know you're not some crazy kook?" Ranma asked, "Why should believe

what you say? I don't even know who you are,"

Asuka gave a yelp of surprise as she felt the arm tighten around her neck.

"It seems I've found your weakness," the man said, "If you cherish this girl's

life, then I recommend you listen to what I have to say,"

Ranma gritted his teeth.

"I intend for you to become one of my High Lords and serve me. You have no

choice," the man said, "Your first task, if you intend to ever see this girl

alive, is to get rid of all of the X-Men,"

"You're collecting adamantium and vibranium to create it, does that mean you

have it?" he asked.

"Yes," Apocalypse said, "I can make whatever weapon or army or object I want

with adamantium,"

"Who the fuck are you?" Ranma said.

"I am Apocalypse," the man said.

After a moment, Ranma started laughing.

Ranma smirked, "Apocalypse, huh? That's a stupid name,"

"You dare mock me?" the man named Apocalypse said.

"First off, Apoc, you're not Eternal. There's only one person that's Eternal

and that's Urd," Ranma said, "Second, you're not going to become God. Third, you

just fucked with the wrong person!"

Ranma dashed forward and punched Apocalypse right in the face. Even though he

had been holding onto Asuka, he ended up letting go as he was sent flying

backwards.

Ranma reached out and grabbed one of his arms, pulling Apocalypse back toward

him, only to punch him again right in the face, sending him flying again.

Before his opponent flew out of reach, Ranma reached out and grabbed one

Apocalypse's leg as he was in mid-flight, and swung him around over his head and

slammed him down on the ground, hard. He slammed him hard on the ground that a

crater was formed.

Ranma then raised one of his legs and slammed it down on the man's face with

devastating force, slamming his foot down several more times until the guy's

head became so embedded in the floor that his body was practically perpendicular

to the floor.

He then kicked Apocalypse in the ribs, sending him flying and crashing out

through the side of the church where he came to a sliding halt near the group of

X-Men.

"What the?" Cyclops knocked out his last opponent to look at the broken man

lying in the middle of the street. His face was caved-in and several ribs were

poking out through his chest, on of his arms bent completely backwards, a puddle

of blood forming.

"A-Apocalypse?" Cyclops could swear he almost recognized the broken man.

"H-h-help," he heard the man utter.

Glancing toward the side, he saw Ranma coming running out of the church,

sprinting straight toward the man.

"Here's what I think of your High Lord shit!" Ranma sneered as he kicked the

man hard in the face, sending him flying bodily upward into the side of the

abandoned building where he crashed through it emerged from the roof and ended

up sailing through the air.

"Mouko Takabisha!" shouted as he extended a hand forward, letting loose a

gigantic house-sized ki-blast straight toward Apocalypse as he continued to sail

through the air.

Cyclops was forced to dive away to safety, the sheer heat of the projectile

too intense of him. He watched as the projectile incinerated the portion of the

abandoned building it as it rocketed forward where it slammed into the hapless

Apocalypse and exploded with such brilliance that it even outshone the sun.

When the explosion disappeared, Cyclops turned a stunned look toward Ranma and

saw him walking back toward the church where Asuka was standing by the opening.

"Ranma," he called out.

Ranma turned to face him, "Yeah?"

"W-what happened?" Cyclops asked, a bit nervous after having seen Ranma

display some more of his powers. The fact that he could've sworn that he had

seen Apocalypse and heard him calling for help must mean something.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the sky where the ki-blast had exploded when it

struck Apocalypse.

"That guy pissed me off,"

new stuff 7/22

Ranma walked over to Asuka.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She looked a bit nervous as she gazed up at him. The side she had seen of him

reminded him of his former self, the side of him that had once tried to kill

Urd. She had only glimpsed it briefly before she had been killed during a

massive explosion.

Cyclops ran up to Ranma but didn't bother to touch his shoulder to get his

attention, worried that he was still angry at something and might actually take

it out on him.

"Um, what happened back there?" he asked cautious.

"The guy pissed me off," Ranma stated, "He tried to get to me through Asuka. I

would have none of that so I beat the crap outta him. This is where my motto of

being a good guy most of the time and being a bad guy when it's convenient comes

to mind,"

Cyclops noticed that Ranma, now that he seemed to have time to calm down and

collect his thoughts, seemed bothered about what he had done. It made Cyclops

relieved that Ranma showed some form of character in his way of thinking.

"I-I've murdered before, but this is the first time I've murdered out of anger

and not self-defense,"

Ranma had indeed murdered before, but under his different persona. Whether

that counted or not, he didn't really know. Although he felt bad, he believed he

did the right thing. That was something knew he would never hesitate to do, to

kill someone to protect someone else. It's just that situations like that had

never arose until now. The last time something like that happened was when

Lorenz Keel looked like he was about to kill his friend, Ryoga.

"Was that Apocalypse?" Cyclops had to ask.

Ranma scratched his head, "Apocalypse? Yeah, I think that's what he called

himself. I didn't really talk to him long,"

"What did he do? What did he say to you?" Cyclops asked.

Ranma shrugged, "He pissed me off by messing with Asuka, thinking that's a way

to manipulate me. He said something about how he wants me to become one of his

High Lords, whatever that means. He wanted me to serve him. ME, serve HIM.

That's funny,"

"What did you do to him?" he asked.

"What is this, twenty questions?" Ranma asked in annoyance, "I punched him a

few times, stepped on him a few times, and kicked him a few times. That last

thing you saw was a ki-blast,"

"Ki-blast?" he asked.

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Forget it. I'm not in the mood to explaining

what that is. Let's just say it's like a magic fireball, but not magic and not a

fireball,"

"That doesn't seem all that helpful," Cyclops stated.

"Well, that's why I don't wanna bother explainin'," Ranma said. He turned

toward Asuka, "He didn't hurt ya or anything, right?"

"Um, no, I'm fine. A bit surprised, but I'm fine," she stated.

"Ranma, is there anything else he said-" Cyclops began.

"Dude, y'mind?" Ranma asked in annoyance, "Lemme alone. I'll talk to y'later

or something. I don't feel like talking right now, jeez,"

"Fine, I expect an explanation later," Cyclops began walking away.

"What?" he heard Ranma's annoyed voice. The fact that he was angry from what

Apocalypse had tried doing was still evident on his face. He still seemed angry

and didn't seem all that reluctant on lashing out toward other people.

"'I expect an explanation later'? Dude, do YOU really expect ME to give you an

explanation because you EXPECT it? Get off your high horse," Ranma said.

When Cyclops was at a loss of words, Ranma turned and headed into the church,

Asuka silently following suit.

"Um, thanks for saving me," Asuka commented, wondering where Ranma was going.

"No problem," Ranma said.

She followed him as he went into the backroom and started looking around. The

backroom looked like a giant storage area littered with crates both small and

large.

"Lettme guess, you're looking for the vibranium," she stated.

"Yep," Ranma said, "I hope that Acapulco-whatever you call him didn't take

that vibranium. It'd be a damn shame to have gone through all that and come out

empty handed,"

He proceeded to look through the crates, opening them up one at a time and

glancing though them.

Asuka proceeded to help out with looking through the smaller crates.

"I've got a funny feeling we're not going to find the vibranium," Asuka

stated.

"Do we even know what we're looking for?" he asked.

"Yeah," Asuka replied, "The picture of it was on the pamphlet. It looks like a

rock. Of course, they never showed a scale picture of it so we have no idea if

it's really small or really large,"

Together, the continued to check through the crates.

Outside, Beast inspected the equipment on one of the random incapacitated

soldiers that lay unconscious on the field across from the abandoned building

and church.

"Well I'll be," Beast said, recognizing a certain device that was on the

soldier's lapel.

"What is it?" Logan, whom happened to be closest, asked.

"Look at this, this is the suppressor device," Beast commented, "The soldiers

were wearing them on their person. That's why our powers didn't work even after

you disabled them within the church. These soldiers had them as well,"

"That's rather sneaky and ingenious," Jean commented as she took a look at the

device, "That could explain why they were in a semi-circle, because if every

soldier had one, the area of effect would be inside that semi-circle,"

"Whose soldiers are these?" Beast gestured toward the ones strewn about on the

field, "They don't look like regular mercenaries. They looked too well-armed and

well-prepared for us,"

"You think they're mercenaries Magneto hired?" Nightcrawler asked, "Isn't that

a bid odd considering Magneto doesn't want anything to do with humans? For him

to hire them and arm them so well doesn't seem to make sense. If he did do that,

that means he would be powerless against them,"

"I agree," Beast said, "This can't be Magneto's doing. We better bring this to

everyone else's attention,"

They both headed over to where Cyclops was where he seemed to be staring

transfixed toward an opening in the side of the church. Everyone ended up

converging on Cyclops at around he same time to regroup.

"Somethin' wrong, Sugah?" Rogue asked him first.

Cyclops jerked a thumb toward a huge gaping hole near the top corner of the

abandoned building.

"What's that about?" Psylocke asked, "I saw Ranma shoot something from his

hand but don't know why. I was too far away. Actually, all of us were too far

away and too busy fighting. Did you see what happened?"

Cyclops nodded, "Yes, I happened to have seen everything that happened,"

"Well, what did Ranma do?" Jean asked.

"H-he was fighting Apocalypse," Cyclops said, feeling surreal, "I think he

killed Apocalypse,"

"What?" everyone gasped.

Ranma was angry when he realized that there were no signs of the vibranium,

"Damnit, that Acapulco-guy stole the vibranium,"

"It's Apocalypse," Asuka corrected him, "Y'know, like in the word Doomsday and

Judgment Day and Ragnarok,"

Ranma shrugged. It was as if that guy didn't even matter enough to Ranma that

he even bother trying to remember his name. In a sense, there was no reason for

Ranma to really care about the guy's name anyway. He was most likely dead.

"Man, this sucks, no vibranium," Ranma sighed.

Asuka said, "Well, maybe we'll be able to find some more if we look around,"

Ranma shook his head, smirking, "No need. When I was talking to Acapulco-guy,

he mentioned that he stole all the adamantium and vibranium,"

"I know," Asuka interrupted, "I was kinda there as a hostage when he said

that,"

"Right," Ranma said, "Anyway, since he had told me he attacked those bases and

stole the adamantium and vibranium, that means he has it in his possession, most

likely at his place or base or whatever it is. What we can do is steal that from

him. Heck, forget about getting the vibranium and having to go through the

process of creating the adamantium. It's probably a pain to do. Let's just go

after the adamantium instead,"

"We have a problem though," Asuka said, "The guy, 'Apocalypse', not 'Acapulco-

guy', isn't around anymore. How do you expect to find out where his base or

house or whatever is if he's not around anymore to tell us?"

Ranma gave a meek smile, "Hm, I guess I didn't really think things through

when I let my anger get the better of me. Wait, Cyclops mentioned his name. He

seems to know that guy and might know where he lives,"

Asuka said, "It couldn't hurt,"

Ranma's eyes widened, "Oh, and didn't you say one of those guys I beat up is

Magneto, the Master of Magnetism? Maybe I can ask him for help in making the

engine using his powers,"

Asuka smirked, "And exactly WHY would he help you? You did knock him out not

too long ago? I'm sure he wouldn't be all that thrilled to help you out,"

"Uh uh, he didn't see me knock him out so I'm in the clear," Ranma said.

"So what do you plan on doing?" she asked.

Ranma grinned, "I'm gonna pretend I saved his life. Maybe that way, he will

feel obligated to help me out out of gratitude,"

"Um, didn't you say that that guy is the guy you sensed with an 'evil' aura?

Do people actually do stuff like that and help people out out of gratitude?

Don't people like that do something like say 'Thank you, now die'?"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Hm, maybe you're right. Maybe I might hafta go

about it differently. But that'll be easy. You were communicating with Jean

telepathically and she mentioned about him. That must mean she knows him. We can

ask about him. Maybe they might know his personality and can tell if he's the

type of person that would help someone out outta gratitude,"

"That sounds really far-fetched," Asuka said, "But it seems plausible,"

Ranma shrugged, "Well, it's the only thing we can go on for now anyway,"

"Do you think they'll mind?" she asked, "Jean mentioned something about how he

and the X-Men are enemies. I don't think it'll sit all that good with them with

you going to Magneto for help,"

Ranma said, "Don't bother me none. Besides, it's because of them that all of

this happened. If they had just listened to my advice to just steal to

vibranium, none of this would've happened,"

"When did you mention this?" she asked.

"You were sleeping then," he answered, "You were sleeping by the tree,"

"Oh," she felt embarrassed.

"Anyway, what really matters now is us getting our hands on the adamantium,"

"Ranma, did you really fight Apocalypse?" Jean asked him as she and he met by

the hole in the side of the church.

Ranma and Asuka had been on his way out while Jean and the others had been on

the way in.

Ranma shrugged, "Yeah. I wouldn't necessarily call it a fight because he sure

didn't put up one,"

"This is crazy," Beast said, having a lot of problems computing everything,

"Not only did you make him bleed and break his bones, something we didn't even

know that was possible with him, but you fought him by yourself and beat him,"

Ranma shrugged, "No big deal,"

"It is a big deal," Jean stated, "Not only did you somehow beat up Magneto,

Juggernaut, Sabertooth, and Lady Deathstrike, but you also beat Apocalypse,"

Ranma shrugged again.

"Do you any of you guys know I can find Acapulco-guy's base or house or

fortress or whatever he lives in?" Ranma asked.

"What for?" Cyclops asked.

"He took the vibranium before I beat the crap outta him," Ranma stated, "I

assume he took it back to his base or its now in transit there. He was the

reason why those bases had been attacked and looted. I'm gonna go there and

steal what he stole,"

Beast said, "Well, he had a base in Egypt but it was destroyed. It's believed

he has many bases but we have no idea where they could be located,"

"Damn, I guess it would've been too easy for that to be the case," Ranma

sighed.

Everyone just stared at him as if he seemed deep in thought as he tried to

figure out what he should do next.

After a moment, he began walking toward one of the soldiers lying unconscious

nearby. Maybe they might know.

The group watched as he walked over to where he lay and picked him up with one

arm by the collar of his outfit, brining him up to his feet. Smacking him a few

times lightly seemed to bring the soldier slowly back to consciousness.

"Huh, wha-" the soldier slurred groggily.

"You guy who hired you, where's his base?" Ranma asked. He was pretty sure the

man knew nothing about Apocalypse but had to ask anyway.

"I-I don't know!" the soldier said, scared, "I-I don't even know the name of

the guy who hired me, let alone where he could be found,"

Ranma pressed his sleep pressure point and dropped the now unconscious man to

the ground. It annoyed him that the soldier didn't know but he wasn't all that

surprised.

He then walked over to the abandoned building.

"Ranma, what are you up to?" Cyclops asked.

"I'm gonna go wake the other people up," Ranma stated, "Seems like they

weren't the cause of the attacks on those bases. From my guess, they're just

like you and figured someone was up to no good and wanted to do exacted what we

intended to do. Unfortunately, we crossed paths and I knocked 'em all out,"

Everyone was a bit confused.

Ranma turned toward them, "I'm gonna go wake that Magneto guy up, he looks the

smartest of the group so I'm gonna ask him if he knows where this Acapulco-guy

can be found,"

"Idiot, it's Apocalypse," Asuka said, "It's not that hard to remember,"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

Everyone turned their attention toward Asuka as she followed behind him. It

was really amusing how Asuka and Ranma seemed to get along. Asuka seemed to see

Ranma like that of a childhood friend, not some super-powerful entity capable of

changing the course of this universe's future at a drop of a hat.

When they realized what Ranma was going to do, that being waking Magneto up,

they quickly rushed after him.

"Wait," Cyclops said, "Do you really intend to wake him back up?"

"Yeah, why not?" he turned toward them, "I need to ask him a question.

Besides, why shouldn't I? It seems like he got caught up in this anyway,"

"I recommend against waking him up," Jean comment, looking about.

The entire team of X-Men was there so should Magneto start attacking everyone,

they should be able to take him down before he did any considerable damage. It

really bothered her that, deep down inside, if Ranma didn't want to listen to

her or anyone else, there was nothing they could do. It made her feel a bit

better knowing that Ranma would be right there in the thick of things. If things

got out of hand, he would most likely put Magneto right back to sleep.

"Hey, can you guys disappear for a bit?" he asked them.

"What?" Cyclops asked, "How come?"

"Dude, you ask A LOT of questions, dontcha?" Ranma commented in annoyance,

"Magneto doesn't know I knocked him out. Maybe I can ask him for help down the

line if he thinks I saved him. Maybe he would use his powers to help me out. If

you guys aren't around, he won't think I'm associated with you and will there

not consider me an enemy,"

Cyclops said, "Magneto isn't the kind of person that would help someone out if

it doesn't benefit him,"

Ranma grinned mischievously, "It might be in his best interest to help me out.

If he doesn't, maybe I'll make him do so the hard way,"

"W-what do you intend to do?" Jean asked.

"I'm just messing around," Ranma stated, "I'm gonna ask him if he knows of

Apocalypse, there, ya happy, Asuka, and where the guy lives. I'm also gonna ask

if he can come to him for help in making an engine down the line after I get my

hands on some adamantium. If he doesn't want to help, then he doesn't want to

help. He's not really obligated to do anything. It couldn't hurt to ask,"

Everyone looked at one another.

"I don't really think that's a good idea," Jean recommended.

Ranma showed signs of annoyance, "What, you want me to just leave them there?

I'm not like that. Good or bad, they got caught up in this. Just because X-Men

are worried about him doesn't mean I should be,"

Everyone was silent. Ranma had a very good point.

"Keep in mind that I'm neither on your side nor on their side," Ranma stated

truthfully, "I'm just doing what's right, and leaving them here out cold while

the authorities come and most likely think they have something to do with what

happened when they didn't, is not something that sits well with me. Tell me,

what did you guys intend to do with them?"

"There's really nothing much we can do," Jean stated.

"Yea, there is," Logan smirked, holding a fist up so his claws could be seen

by all.

"Besides that," Jean said.

"I'm gonna go wake 'em back up," Ranma said, "I'm gonna start with Magneto so

I can ask him some questions that he can hopefully answer. Whether or not he

chooses to help me is up to him. After that, I'll go wake everyone else up and

be on my way,"

"And what do you intend to do?" Beast asked.

"If he knows where to find the guy, I'm heading there," Ranma said, "Without

you guys. I listened to your suggestion to wait and see what happens and this is

what happened. I knew something was going to happen if I didn't just go ahead

and steal the vibranium, but I decided to give you guys the benefit of the doubt

and go along with your plan. Now that this has happened, it seems like listening

to you guys don't seem to be in my best interest anymore,"

The sounds of the sirens got closer.

"It seems like there's nothing much else we can do here," Cyclops said, "It

seems like our task of preventing the vibranium from getting stolen has failed.

All that's left is for the authorities to sort out mess and figure out what to

do with all those soldiers. All that we can do now is head back to the

Blackbird,"

He looked at Ranma, "Are you two going to be coming with us?"

Ranma shrugged, "Dunno. If they know where I can find Apocalypse's base, then

no. If not, then I guess I'll meet you guys back there so I can figure out what

to do next,"

"Fine," Cyclops said, "We'll wait for you at the Blackbird. If you two don't

show up in an hour, we'll assume you've went your separate way,"

Ranma nodded, "Okay,"

"That's it?" Psylocke had to ask, "You're just going to leave the team just

like that?"

"I was never part of the team," Ranma stated.

Psylocke's lips became a thin line.

"Before you decide to go your own separate way, there might be another way to

get the adamantium you need," Beast commented, thinking on the fly.

Ranma perked an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"We can go to Madripoor for it," Beast said, "It's a small island nation

located in Indonesia. It's known for its black market and there could be a

chance we could buy adamantium from there,"

Logan smirked, "Madripoor, huh? I wouldn't mind visiting that place. Patch

hadn't made an appearance there in a while,"

'Patch' referred to the alias Logan uses whenever he frequented Madripoor. Not

only was Patch a co-owner of the Princess Bar in Lowtown, but he was also know

to have taken part in many no-holds-barred underground fight contests that took

place there. And not only that, but his ex-wife, a woman named Viper, ruled

Madripoor, and they hated each other.

"Madripoor?" Ranma scratched his chin, "Sounds interesting. I'll take you up

on that offer if Magneto can't or won't help me out,"

Everyone seemed rather happy to hear that. They knew Magneto fairly well and

were very sure he would not help out Ranma no matter how grateful he was. It was

Magneto's character not to help anyone out if it benefited him in no way.

"If, I'm warning you now, we do end up having to go to Madripoor, I'm doing

things MY way," Ranma said, looking directly at Cyclops, "I'm going in and I'm

stealing it. If you don't like it, you can either turn a blind or fight me. And

judging from your reactions at having realized that I defeated some of your most

powerful and worst enemies, I have a good feeling you don't want to fight me,"

"Don't count on it, bub," Logan smirked.

Magneto felt disoriented but refreshed when he came out of unconsciousness.

He opened his eyes and wondered where he was. Looking around, he found himself

in a room of what was most likely some dilapidated or abandoned building. As he

sat upright, he caught sight of two unfamiliar faces, Ranma's and Asuka's.

They were standing nearby, Asuka behind Ranma as Ranma crouched right by

Magneto's side.

"Sleep well?" Ranma smirked.

Magneto quickly got to his feet, "Who are you?"

"I'm Ranma," Ranma said, "Um, I saved your life,"

"Oh did you?" Magneto asked, not believing a word the man was saying.

"Maybe you can answer a question for me," Ranma asked, "I was wondering, do

you know where I can find where Apocalypse lives,"

Magneto regarded Ranma for a moment. After a moment,

"I recognize you," the man said, "You're that mutant that saved that all those

human children when that school collapsed,"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I am,"

Magneto commented, "Your deed was a rather heroic one if I must say,

even if it was to save those inferior homo sapiens. Had you done something like

that to save the mutant children during the Morlock Massacre, I might actually

hold you in good favor,"

"Um, Morlock Massacre?" Ranma asked.

"It seems like you are X-Men," Magneto asked, remembering what he knew about

the building collapse incident. He had been aware that the X-Men had been

accompanying Ranma or vice versa.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Believe what you may about my affiliation with X-

Men but I'm not a part of their team. I helped them out cause I don't like

children dying,"

Magneto looked around and noticed Juggernaut, Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike all

knocked out cold.

"What happened here?" he asked.

Ranma thought for a moment, "They, and you got beat up by some dude named

Apocalypse. I wanted the vibranium that was going to be auctioned here so I

could make adamantium. I noticed someone seemed to be collecting it so I came

here to steal it before whoever it was stole it. You and your friends are in

here because I happened to have found you and all unconscious and put you in

here for safety while I fought Apocalypse. Unfortunately, he succeeded in

stealing the vibranium,"

Magneto regarded Ranma for a moment. He found it rather amusing that Ranma

seemed to have stated exactly what he himself had planned. He, too, had noticed

the thefts for adamantium and had been there to prevent whoever it was from

acquiring the vibranium at the auction. However, it seemed he was knocked out

before he even had a chance to know what happened.

"You fought Apocalypse?" Magneto was skeptic.

"Almost beat him," Ranma lied, "Took me and the entire X-Men to defeat him and

get him to run away. But by then, he had already taken the vibranium,"

"So the X-Men were here," Magneto said, his assumptions confirmed.

Ranma decided he needed to play the part of an anti-hero more.

"Yeah, so?" Ranma said, "I needed their help. What's it to you? What, you guys

hate each other or something?"

Magneto regarded Ranma, wondering if he was just pulling his leg. He had seen

Ranma with the X-Men on television. But then again, if he was with the X-Men,

then that mean the X-Men would be near by.

He got up and walked over to the window and looked out. There was no more fog

and the sun shone brightly overhead.

"If you're looking for the X-Men, they're long gone," Ranma said, "I was the

front man for them. When I found you guys, I dumped you in here. The X-Men never

noticed you guys were here. After they were done, we went our separate ways.

It's no use for me to hang around the X-Men since Apocalypse got away with the

vibranium I need,"

Magneto seemed a bit more convinced but still somewhat skeptic.

"Well, for what you've done for me, it seems like I'm in your debt," Magneto

commented, "However, I do not know where Apocalypse can be found,"

Ranma shrugged, "Hm, maybe I'll go and asked the X-Men if they know,"

"I've got a better plan," Magneto said, "Join me and my Acolytes and together

we can save all of mutant kind and rid the world of humans. In return, I'll help

you get the adamantium you need,"

Ranma smirked as he jerked a thumb toward, "In case you're wondering, I have a

human companion,"

"Your friend will be safe in our care," Magneto said.

Ranma acted like he thought about it for a moment, "If you can do me a favor,

I'll help you out with your quest, but don't expect me to kill for you,"

"Agreed," Magneto said, "And what request is that?"

"If I get you the adamantium, can you create for me an engine made of that?"

Ranma asked, "It shouldn't be too hard, right? I've heard of you and it's said

that you are the 'Master of Magnetism'. You can make an engine, right?"

"Whatever for?" Magneto had to ask.

"Hey, I didn't ask you why you seem to want mutants to rule over humans so

why're you asking me?" Ranma asked.

Magneto laughed, amused by Ranma's gall.

"Very well, I'll help you out," Magneto said, trying to think of a good way to

put Ranma to good use.

"R-Ranma," Asuka said nervously, "You're going to join them? They're bad

guys,"

Magneto glared at Asuka, "And who are you to judge? We're not the kind of

species that would murder another species out of fear of the unknown,"

Ranma quickly said, "Um, don't mind her,"

"If I retrieve the adamantium, you'll do it?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, but before I do that, you must do me a favor," Magneto began.

"Hey, I saved your ass," Ranma said, acting annoyed, "Don't you think you owe

me something in return? If I saved you and your minions or whatever you call

them, and then do another favor for you, that's two favors you'll owe me,"

Magneto laughed, "Very well. You have a point. Bring me the adamantium and we

have a deal. My base is located in Antarctica,"

He went about telling Ranma the longitude and latitude of where the bases was

located as Ranma made a mental note.

"Would it happen to be near where that meteor had crashed?" Ranma asked, "I

think be bases was called Melroy if I'm correct,"

Magneto nodded, "As a matter of fact, the meteor was a part of my base that

fell off during re-entry,"

"Re-entry?" Ranma asked.

"It is of no concern to you," Magneto said, "You may have my gratitude for

what you have done, but it doesn't means I will up and tell you everything about

me or who I am,"

"Fine, fine, I understand," Ranma said.

The sounds of sirens could be heard just outside of the abandoned building

now.

"Well, it seems like we best be going," Ranma said.

He walked over and pressed the pressure points for Juggernaut, Sabertooth. He

didn't bother pressing Lady Deathstrike's pressure point since it wouldn't work

on her, what with her cybernetic body, and the fact that she would be naturally

waking up in a minute or so anyway.

"What did you do?" Magneto asked, noticing Juggernaut and Sabertooth slowly

coming back to consciousness.

Ranma smiled, "It's one of my, um, many mutant abilities,"

He climbed out of the window and helped Asuka out. Noticing that they had not

been spotted by the authorities, they started walking down the street. They

would head for the Blackbird shortly. They had plenty of time.

"Ranma, y-you really plan on joining up with that guy?" Asuka asked after a

minute.

Ranma shook his head, "Nah. I just pretended like I would to give him all the

more reason to help me...to get me on his team. Once I get the engine, we're

outta there,"

Asuka sighed in relief.

Ranma chuckled as he nudged her, "What do you take me for? Why would I team up

with them? Did you hear the name of his team? The Acolytes? I don't wanna be

part of a team called Acolytes. It sounds like what you call dog shit after it

hardens,"

Asuka giggled.

"All we've got left to do is to get our hands on the adamantium and bring it

to Magneto," Ranma said, "He'll make us the engine. I tell him I changed my mind

and not join his team. He'll probably be really really pissed, but oh well, it's

not like he can really do anything about it. I'll grab it and run away. Bam, we

have ourselves the adamantium engine we need,"

"He seems like a powerful person," Asuka commented, "Are you sure you don't

mind having someone like that furious at you?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nah,"

The two of them walked along silently until Asuka paused for a moment.

"I just noticed something," Asuka commented, "Didn't that Sabertooth guy saw

you knocked out Magneto? You woke him up right before you left..."

"Oh shit," Ranma said.

At that moment, the building about a block behind him exploded as a hovering

and fuming Magneto emerged out from the dust cloud.

"Oh shit, I think he just found out from Sabertooth that I had knocked him out

and that all I said was a lie," Ranma said, picking up Asuka, "The guy looks

serious pissed. Let's get outta here,"

Magneto spotted Ranma, "You! You'll regret ever having crossed my path!"

He extended a hand toward. All of a sudden, all the metal parking meters that

lined the sidewalks broke free from the ground as it levitated into the air. A

second later, they came flaying straight toward Ranma like javelins, all aimed

at his heart.

Ranma ducked and weaved and dodged the twenty or so parking meters, all of

them missing him.

"Does that mean you still won't make me the engine?" he had to ask.

"Die!" Magneto shouted as he used his powers to unearth giant underground

water pipes and levitate nearby cars and started sending them rocketing toward

Ranma.

Ranma dodged and kicked whatever incoming projectiles there were out of the

way.

"Um, I take that as a no?"

"Hey, look, it's Ranma and Asuka, they're back," Jean said as she looked out

the cockpit window saw Ranma, Asuka on his back, emerged from the dense forest

and out into the open field where the Blackbird was.

Cyclops, whom had been sitting next to her, asked, "He did it again? He ran

the whole distance? Why doesn't he just fly?"

"Ranma doesn't care to use his powers," Jean commented, "It seems like he

believes what he preaches, that powers you're given should complement your

fighting ability, not compensate it,"

"Frankly, I'm a bit confused," Cyclops said, "He has these wondrous powers yet

he doesn't use them. I don't understand why,"

Jean said, "I really wish I could read what's going on in his mind because I

would sure like to know why as well,"

They watched as Ranma tripped over a rock and fell flat on his face. Asuka

ended up tumbling to the ground with him, Ranma landing on top of her. They

watched in disbelief as an angry Asuka quickly got to her feet and kicked him in

the head a few times before disappearing out of their view under the Blackbird

in a huff.

Ranma could be seen laughing embarrassedly as he got back up to his feet and

followed after her.

"Well, I'll be, Ranma tripped," Jean commented, "When was the last time you

ever seen something like that happen, a person just tripping?"

"Um, I don't think I've ever seen something like THAT happen before," Cyclops

commented.

"What kind of relationship do they share?" Jean had to ask, "She looked like

she was trying to seriously hurt him. It makes me wonder if she likes him or

not. I mean how can you kick someone you like, and that hard?"

Cyclops blushed of the sudden image of Asuka looking at his underwear flashed

through his head. Asuka probably didn't like Ranma because she had a secret

crush on Cyclops instead. Why else would she have his underwear.

"Don't you think?" Jean asked.

"Um, yeah," Cyclops said, clearing his throat.

Jean headed for the cabin, "Let's go greet them and be on our way,"

Cyclops followed Jean into the cabin where everyone seemed rather happy to see

Ranma and Asuka join their ranks again.

"What happened? It seems like you fell or something," Jean smirked, gesturing

toward the bit of debris on Ranma's shirt.

Ranma dusted at it his shirt, "Um, well, let's just say 'shit happens',"

Jean snickered.

"So what's going on? Does that mean Magneto refused to help?" Beast asked.

Ranma gave a meek smile, "Um, more or less. Let's just say I kinda fucked up,"

"What, what did you do?" Beast asked.

"Ranma lied to him that he found him and saved him," Asuka said, "Of course,

everything goes well until he wakes the others up and they tell him that they

saw Ranma knock them out,"

Ranma said, "Yeah, that's about the point where I realized I fucked up,"

Everyone seemed to burst out laughing.

"So, I guess we'll be goin' t'Madripoor, huh?" Logan grinned.

Ranma nodded, "I guess so. I don't have much choice anyway since Magneto

didn't know where Apocalypse's base can be found anyway,"

"So, I guess we're on our way to Madripoor then," Cyclops said, heading back

into the cockpit.

"Yeah, I guess, if you don't mind," Ranma said.

Madripoor, a small jungle covered island nation location in the Indonesian

archipelago, it was where many criminals with no where else to go would usually

flee to since it does not allow for other nations to extradite criminals from

within its borders. Because of this, Madripoor was a safe haven for many

international crime lords and criminal organizations that actually help maintain

the stability of the laissez fair type government. It is because of a

combination of all of these that a giant ring of piracy and underground black

market flourished, allowing anyone with the right money and the right people to

contact to buy whatever their heart's desire.

Because of its strategic location near major trade routes, Madripoor had many

harbors and dock facilities for trading and a large international airport. There

are also lot of private airstrips located throughout Madripoor used by crime

organizations for illegal activities like drug-running and.

With nowhere to land without being seen, the Blackbird touched down in a

crudely made helicopter landing area cut into the dense forest, most likely used

for drug-running, located near Lowtown, the city where Logan co-owned the

Princess Bar.

Logan had changed out of his uniform and into some regular clothes. The

Blackbird had a small compartment where regular clothes were kept, just in case.

For situations like this, those compartments were finally useful.

Cyclops and Jean and Psylocke were also clad in regular clothes. Everyone else

wore their current outfits. This was because they would not be accompanying

Ranma in the mission. They would be staying behind would be better since

something like this required a small group instead of a large one.

Logan, knowing Madripoor better than anyone else, he having frequented the

place many more times than all of the X-Men members combined, would be leading

the team.

"Lowtown's only a short distance from here," Logan said, "We can go to the

Princess Bar there and talk to some of the locals. They should be able to tell

us where we could find what we need,"

Ranma and Asuka followed Logan into the woods as Cyclops and Jean trailed

behind.

"What kind of place is this?" Asuka asked toward Logan's back.

"It's not much diff'rent from other places, kid," Logan replied, "Only

diff'rence is there's a huge black market here. You can get whatever y'want here

if y'got the money. You can buy a nuclear bomb here if ya know where t'look,"

"Really?" Ranma said, "That's awesome,"

"And just what's so 'awesome' about it?" Cyclops asked, "There's a good chance

whoever buys it would use it for form of terrorism to kill thousands to millions

of people,"

Ranma shrugged, "Y'know how it is, shit happens,"

"Back on the plane, you said you're married to the ruler of this place,

right?" Ranma nudged at Logan.

"Used to," Logan said coldly, "We're divorced,"

"What's her name?" he asked.

"Viper," Logan answered.

"Is she hot?" Ranma asked.

"Ranma," Asuka said in annoyance, "Man, what the hell's with guys ALWAYS

asking if a girl's hot? It's always asked within the first three or so

questions,"

"So, how come you guy's got divorced?" Ranma asked, grinning, "Couldn't get it

up?"

Logan's claws darted out as he held a fist toward Ranma's face, "I don't think

so. I'm fine when it comes to that department,"

Ranma laughed, "Heh, you just said a pun. Get it?"

"Ranma!" Asuka shouted at him.

"We got a divorce after I gutted her and she was bleeding to death," Logan

said, "I told her I wouldn't get her medical help unless she agreed to divorce

me,"

Ranma grinned as he nudged at Jean and said, "Wow, maybe Logan here isn't

husband material. What do you think, Jean?"

Logan narrowed his eyes toward Ranma menacingly. Ranma knew that he had

feelings for Jean and was using that to rub it in.

"Logan and Viper hate each other," Jean stated, "Something like that was bound

to happen sooner or later,"

"Yeah, Jean's right," Logan said with a grin.

Ranma shrugged, "If you say so,"

"Look, let's focus on the task at hand," Cyclops said.

"Dude," Ranma said, "Lighten up. We're on our way to the Princess Bar. That's

the task on hand. There's not much we need to do to 'focus on the task at

hand',"

Logan snickered as Cyclops gritted his teeth at Ranma's wiseass remarks.

Ranma sure had a way with words.

new stuff 7/24

"Man, you really beat Apocolypse, Magneto, Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, and

Juggernaut," Jean commented toward Ranma's back from out of the blue as the

group slowly made their way through the forest.

"You've been saying that all day," Ranma stated, "It's kinda getting annoying

if y'ask me,"

"It's just so unbelievable that I still have trouble believing it even though

I saw it with my own eyes," she said, "To think that that many villains,

defeated by a single person, it's almost unthinkable. I think after seeing that,

now I'm starting to realize the kind of power you possess,"

Ranma chuckled, "Powers? I barely used any of them, except maybe against those

Apocalypse and Juggernaut guys. I definitely used some of it against Apocalypse

cause he pissed me off,"

"You didn't you your powers?" Cyclops asked, "You ripped Juggernauts armor

off. You killed Apocalypse, something we need to talk about later,"

"Juggernaut, yeah," Ranma said, "I did use my powers to rip that armor off.

There was this weird mystical aura surrounding him that would make it impossible

otherwise if I was a normal human. I simply used my powers to cancel out that

aura. I didn't use it for anything else. That armor he has wasn't all that hard

to rip off. Try ripping off armor-plating off an Evangelion, now THAT'S hard,"

"Evangelion?" Cyclops asked.

"They're these man-made humanoid machines created to combat Angels," Ranma

said, "They're huge, like the size of those skyscraper buildings in New York

City. And what's this thing about us having to talking about my killing this

Apocalypse guy later? Let's talk about it now. What did I do now that seems to

have gotten your panties up in a bunch?"

Cyclops seemed to be getting annoyed at Ranma's tact.

"You really killed him, didn't you?" he asked.

Ranma nodded, "Yep. He tried to manipulate me by using Asuka as a hostage. Bad

move. You can try and kill me face-to-face and it would piss me off less,"

"But to kill, that should be a absolute last resort," Cyclops said.

"Yep, it should," Ranma shrugged, "But I decided to make an exception with

that guy,"

Cyclops seemed to glare at Ranma, "But to kill should be the last resort,"

Ranma dashed forward and grabbed Jean, twisting around her so he ended up

behind her, an arm around her neck, as the two of them ended up facing the

confused Logan, Cyclops, and Asuka.

"For instance, what would you do if I grabbed your wife and threatened to kill

her if you don't do as I say?" Ranma smirked.

"R-Ranma, what are you doing?" Jean said in surprised. She didn't even see him

move until he was behind her.

"Well?" Ranma smirked, "What are you going to do?"

He silently whispered something into her ear that no one but Jean could see or

hear.

"I'm gonna kill her in five seconds, what are you going to do?" Ranma said.

"You're lying," Cyclops said, confident that he knew Ranma well enough that he

wasn't the kind of person to do so,

"W-what's going on here?" Asuka asked, confused.

"Four," Ranma said.

"Let go of her," Cyclops said.

"Three," Ranma said.

"I'm warning you!" Cyclops started reaching for his visor.

Without finishing his count, Ranma twisted Jean's neck violently toward one

side, a loud snap heard. Jean's eyes widened as she suddenly realized her neck

had been broken.

"Oh my god!" Cyclops shouted.

Ranma grabbed her arms and her arms behind her back, the sound of a double-

snap heard as they emanated from either one of her shoulders. After that, he

pressed a hand forward and pressed his hand into the small of her back, pushing

forward, making her bend backwards in an awkward position, as if her spine had

just been shattered.

Jean's eyes widened as she felt this huge wave of pleasure envelope her as her

knees seemed buckle under her own bodyweight as Ranma put her down on the

ground. Unable to stay on her feet, she slumped down to the ground.

"I'll kill you!" Cyclops shouted as he saw his wife slump to the ground

lifeless.

A massive optic blast shot out from his visor, missing Ranma by inches as he

stepped toward the side. Hundred of trees behind Ranma were instantly

incinerated, the destruction turning it into an instant landing strip.

"Wow, Cyclops. It seems like you're a lot more powerful than I anticipated,"

Ranma chuckled, "Better be careful where you aim that thing. You could hit

someone like me,"

Asuka rushed toward Jean as she lay on the ground.

Logan, seeing Jean dead on the ground, allowed his rage to consume him as he

went into berserker rage. He immediately sprung out his claws and leapt toward

Ranma, intent on cutting him to ribbons.

Ranma side stepped as Logan ended up lunging right past him, slashing in his

general direction.

"You know what the lesson is here?" Ranma asked, dodging again as Logan

slashed at him again.

He had this amused look on his face as Logan seemed to make jumping lunges at

him, missing him and landing and coming to a sliding halt before making another

jumping lunge toward him again.

Ranma sidestepped optic beam after optic beam as he continued to dodge Logan's

vicious attacks.

Jean seemed to be disoriented as she tried to figure out what was going on.

She looked around and saw Asuka crouching down over her. Sounds of carnage could

be heard behind her.

"W-what's going on?" she asked.

Asuka had an amused and relieved look on her face, "You're all right,"

"What happened?" she asked. And why did she feel this incredible sense of

euphoria, like whatever stress on her body she had had suddenly disappeared.

Asuka smiled, "Ranma played chiropractor on you,"

"What?" she asked.

"Ranma basically cracked your back," Asuka answered.

"What?" Jean rubbed at her neck, noticing that this pinching pain she felt in

it was no longer there.

She got up to her feet and noticed that this ache she was feeling in her back

was gone. It had been a dull aching feeling that she knew would be gone after a

day or so. It had happened when she fell down from the rafters of the church and

onto the floor.

"Ranma knows chiropractics," Asuka said, "The problem is that, well, hearing

it in action is actually disgusting because you hear really loud snaps,"

Jean rubbed at her neck, "I-I thought he broke my neck,"

Asuka giggled, "Don't worry. You're not the only one that thought that. Every

person he's done that to thinks the same thing and not only that, but dislocate

their shoulders and break their spine as well,"

Jean rubbed at her back as well, "You're right, I thought he-"

"Everyone thinks that," Asuka said, "It's that snapping noise that throws

everyone off. Cyclops and Logan thinks Ranma had broken your neck and such when

they heard it and are attacking Ranma right now,"

Jean's eyes widened as she quickly looked around for the two of them, to stop

them and let them know that she was fine.

She caught sight of them a short distance away.

Her eyes were wide with surprise when she saw Ranma walking back toward her

and Asuka, Logan and Cyclops, their arms by their sides, tucked under each arm,

struggling to free themselves, their legs kicking back and forth.

"Well I'll be, Jean seems to my magically come back to life," Ranma acted in

exaggerated surprise.

Logan and Cyclops looked toward Jean and realized she seemed perfectly fine.

Jean, seeing Logan and Cyclops in that rather embarrassing predicament,

couldn't help but laugh.

"What's going on here?" Cyclops asked, sure that he saw Jean die right before

his eyes.

Ranma dropped Logan and Cyclops to the ground, taking no effort to put them

down gently.

"I was trying to teach you a lesson about something," Ranma muttered, "That

way, you'd get off my back about why I killed Apocalypse,"

Cyclops quickly rushed toward Jean, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, moving her shoulders around, "Actually, surprisingly, I

feel better now than before,"

"What did you do to her?" Cyclops turned toward Ranma.

"I never killed her," Ranma stated, "I just helped realign some of her bones.

She took a nasty tumble in the church and kinda messed up her back a bit. I had

forgotten about it until now so simply fixed it,"

Cyclops scratched his head, "I'm confused here,"

"I'm sure you are, Mr. Leader," Ranma grinned, "I was just trying to show you

that you should change your pansy way of thinking,"

"My pansy way of thinking?" Cyclops asked, getting angry.

"You think diplomacy works all the time?" Ranma asked, "Well it doesn't. Get

it through your head. It seems like the 'death' of your wife finally brought you

to the point of actually killing. How would you have liked to have realized that

the hard way, after she's dead? You say killing should be the last resort. It

generally should, but how would you like it if you found out that that had been

your last resort but found out too late after your wife had been killed?"

Cyclops' lips became a thin line.

"I'm not trying to be some sensei or something," Ranma shrugged, "It's just

that if you're gonna preach your ideals on me, then maybe I should get to preach

some of my ideals toward you as well,"

Cyclops sneered angry at himself for realizing that Ranma was right.

"So, Jean, you're alright?" Logan asked.

Jean nodded.

"You're lucky, bub," Logan sneered toward Ranma.

Ranma bent down and picked up a broken branch, "How am I lucky? That I didn't

kill Jean and hafta suffer the wrath of a pissed off Logan? Dude, I can sodomize

you with this branch here and there's nothing you can do,"

Logan brought extended a claw toward Asuka, smirking, "Ever hear of the saying

'An eye for an eye'?"

Asuka suddenly became nervous at the sight of the claws pointing toward her.

Ranma narrowed his eyes.

Logan's claws retracted as he smirked toward Ranma, "What's funny is that as

powerful as y'may be, you, like everyone else, still have a weakness,"

Ranma laughed, "You may be a real bad ass and all, Logan, but even you're not

that stupid,"

Logan grinned, "Wanna try me?"

Ranma shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not?"

Logan retracted his claws, "I'm sure y'really have no idea if I would do it or

not. I'll use that as my trump card should we ever hafta fight y'fer real,"

Ranma nodded, "Sounds like a good plan...at least on paper,"

"Ranma, you're such an idiot!" Asuka shouted at him.

Everyone seemed dumbfounded as they turned toward Asuka.

"W-what?" Ranma asked, "What the heck did I do now? Whatever it is, 'I'm

sorry',"

"Stinking automatic 'guy-response'," Asuka muttered, "If you're going to go

acting all omnipotent and playing around with people's lives and pissing them

off, I don't wanna be involved. Why should I get caught up in your antics?"

"What the heck are y'talkin' about?" Ranma said, "How can you NOT be involved.

You tagged along with me to this world. You're every bit as deep in whatever

crap we're in as I am,"

"I'll be the judge of that," Asuka said as she walked on alone.

Everyone looked at one another as Ranma quickly followed her, arguing with

her.

"What the heck just happened here?" Cyclops scratched his head.

Logan smirked, "I think Ranma just tried showing you in his own way to back

off on shoving your ideals down his throat, and now Asuka's angry at him for his

approach,"

Cyclops was silent.

"A rather unorthodox, but probably effective approach though," Logan added.

Asuka looked at the bustling city that was Lowtown as she and the others

walked through its busy streets. She felt a bit nervous because most of the

people walking around gave her an eerie feeling, like they all had some kind of

shadowy past and had no where else to live but in Madripoor.

"It's no diff'rent than New York City," Logan commented, "Think of this as the

part of New York City than y'don't see on television and such,"

"How far are we away from this Princess Bar?" Ranma asked, "I kinda don't like

the way people keep glaring at us like we're trespassers or such,"

"Jus' a couple more blocks," Logan commented.

"Couldn't we just fly?" Asuka asked, "It would get us there quicker,"

Logan said, "And reveal to ev'ryone we're mutants? No thanks. Although this

place is considered a safe-haven for criminals, it doesn't necessarily mean the

same for mutants. Mutants are feared and hated everywhere you go. This place is

no diff'rent,"

"Hey dere, darlin', howsabout y'ditch the purdy-boy and come wit me? I'll show

y'good time," some drunkenly stranger approached Jean even as she walked along

side Cyclops.

"Back off," Cyclops said.

Ranma kicked the drunk guy in the side, sending him tumbling to the ground

where he passed out in a drunken stupor.

"Sometimes diplomacy don't work as well as a good boot to the head," Ranma

said in annoyance.

Logan chuckled, "Ranma's caught on t'how things work 'round here pretty

quickl, One-Eye. Y'should try and do the same too,"

"Man, it's middle of the day and people are walking around drunk?" Asuka

commented, "I can understand seeing people like this late at night at around

three in the morning, but it's only the afternoon,"

"That's because the Princess Bar's that good," Logan smirked, "That guy came

outta it prob'bly not five minutes and staggered here,"

Ranma chuckled.

Together the walked up to a bar that had 'Princess Bar' written on a big sign

in the front. Entering, everyone noticed that the bar was pretty filled to

capacity. There were guys and girls happily drinking to their hearts content and

enjoying one another's company.

"Patch? Is that you?" an middle-aged bartender said, recognizing the new

customer.

Logan entered the bar, everyone following suit, "How'sit goin', Romel?"

"Long time no see, Patch," the man named Romel said, "Everything's fine. And

yerself?"

"Fine," Logan said.

"So, what bring y'here to this ugly side of the world?" Romel chuckled,

"Besides to check up on this dump you own called a bar?"

Logan chuckled, "Just here on a bit of business,"

"So what can I do for ya?" Romel asked.

"I'm looking for a place to buy some adamantium," Logan stated, "Y'know where

I can find some?"

"Adamantium whatever for?" Romel had to ask.

"Y'know where I can find some?" Logan repeated himself, impatient.

Romel shook his head, "Naw, can't help y'there. But there is some lad that

comes in ev'ry evening to drink himself under. He's a real smart ass but he

might be of help. He's a young lad usually wearing nice clothes and all and has

long brown hair and always sits at the end of the bar,"

"Evening, huh? Around when?" Logan asked.

"Usually 'round six and stays till midnight or so," Romel said.

"Thanks," Logan said, "We'll come back then,"

"No prob, boss," Romel said, "See y'round,"

"You, too," Logan said.

"So, what should we do until then?" Jean asked.

"We wait I guess," Ranma stated, "Of course, we've gotta wait around several

hours or so. Damn, more waiting,"

Asuka asked, "Ranma, why don't you speed up time? That way, we won't have to

really wait,"

"Y-you can do something like that?" Jean asked in surprise.

Ranma smirked, "Yeah, I can, but I won't. I don't care to use my powers. Also,

dontcha think it would seem odd if everyone moves at a faster time than us. To

them, it'll look like we're standing perfectly still,"

"I guess you have a point," Asuka said, "I guess you can scratch that idea,"

"Asuka, are you that used to his powers that the thought of him being able to

manipulate time not surprise you?" Jean had to ask the young girl.

Asuka shrugged, "Not really,"

"Hey, we have God's phone number on speed dial," Ranma grinned, "Y'can't quite

beat something like that in terms of shock value,"

Logan, Jean, and Cyclops looked at each other.

"Did you just say you have God's phone number?" Jean asked.

"Yep," he nodded, "I also have her sister's number as well. She's a Goddess

and maintains Yggdrasil,"

"Yggdrasil? Like from Norse mythology?" Jean asked, "The tree that's thought

to overshadow the whole world and bring together the Earth, Heaven, and Hell

with its roots and branches?"

Ranma shook his head, "No. It's the computer that maintains the universe and

keeps everything functioning in working order,"

"A computer, huh?" Cyclops said, completely skeptical.

"Yeah, the same computer you used to download porn," Asuka muttered, suddenly

angry.

Ranma became defensive, "Hey, what else is a computer good for,"

"Let me get this straight," Jean said, "You used a Yggdrasil, a computer that

basically controls the universe, to download porn?"

"Um, more or less," Ranma gave a shy smile, "I know the stuff you hear sounds

like a whole buncha bullshit, but I've done and seen the stuff I've talked

about. Whether or not you believe me is entirely up to you,"

Jean quickly said, "We're not saying that we don't believe you, it's just that

the stuff you say makes it extremely hard to believe you. How would you feel if

you suddenly meet someone who says something like 'I hang out with God'?"

"I'd probably think he or she's lying," Ranma said, "To see if he or she's

telling the truth, I'd ask a series of questions to confirm my suspicions,"

"I don't think you understand, Ranma," Asuka interrupted, "I think what she

means is that you speak of stuff that's, frankly, completely impossible for

people comprehend,"

Ranma turned toward Jean and said, "In truth, I don't really expect you to

believe me. It doesn't bother me. No offense, the stuff I've seen and done is

beyond human comprehension. The more you try to understand the stuff I've seen

and done, the more you'll be confused. In the end, you'll probably end up really

depressed when you find out all your beliefs that you learned in church and such

are complete bullshit,"

"What, like about things like Jesus Christ and such?" Jean asked.

Ranma chuckled, "Yeah, take him for example. How would you feel if I said

something like, say, Jesus Christ was specifically born to be killed by a man

named Longinus so the weapon he used would become enchanted so it could be used

to fight divine beings when they attacked the world in the future?"

Everyone was silent.

"I'm not saying what I just said is true, but I'm not denying it either,"

Ranma said, "It's just that some of the stuff I know it's REALLY depressing and

will completely change the way you view the world. The reason why you don't

believe me is your inborn reluctance to realizing that all the stuff you've been

taught, all the stuff you believed in, is false,"

"Um, why are we talking about this stuff anyway?" Asuka asked. She had heard

all of this stuff before and didn't really care to hear it again.

"I'll keep an open mind," Jean said, "Tell me something you know that we don't

know that is probably so outrageous and none of us would believe,"

Ranma thought about it for a moment.

Asuka said, "Tell them about how old our universe is. It would probably

surprise them,"

Ranma said, "Good idea,"

"How old your universe is? What about your universe?" Jean asked.

"Our universe where our world exist is only around, what, three or four years

old," Ranma said.

"What?" everyone said, "How's that possible?"

"See, gotcha," Ranma grinned, "Pretty outrageous, huh?"

"Care to enlighten us?" Cyclops asked.

"I caused a thing called Third Impact on my world," Ranma said, "That process

destroyed EVERYTHING. The entire universe. However, my causing Third Impact

allowed me to become God, which gave me the powers to do this and that and all

the quirks that come with having God-powers. With that power, I recreated the

entire universe. Everyone in that universe, not even Asuka here, aren't aware

that they had been wiped from existence. I recreated the world so perfectly that

no one suspected anything. Therefore, the universe is as old as when I created

it, that being only a few years,"

"But what about all that stuff they find that gives indication that the

universe is around five billion years old," Jean asked.

Ranma grinned, "This the part that people would refuse to understand or

accept. All the clues people find about how old the universe are planted, mere

perfect representation of the previous universe. All in all, what they believe

are clues to how old their universes is is actually clues as to how old the

previous universe was before being recreated,"

Everyone was silent.

"I could snap my fingers and kill Jean right here where she stands," Ranma

stated, "And in that instant, resurrect her in perfect form she was before she

died. She would have no idea what happened since she would have no memory of

being killed. No one would suspect it. But all in all, she is no longer that

Jean from before she died. She'll actually be only a few seconds old, but the

recreation of her is so perfect, everyone would think she's, what, twenty-five

or so, and is completely unaware that the clues of her age is actually the

perfectly recreated clues of the previous Jean. Me, I'm the only person in this

room that will truly know the truth. That's how it is with the universe and

such. I was there so I know the truth even if every indications given indicates

that I'm just lying right through my teeth,"

"This is just too incredible," Jean said, looking around for a seat to sit

down.

"Can you tell us more?" Cyclops asked.

"It's no use," Ranma said, "You guys can't really comprehend it. Only if you

were there would you understand. It's like the meaning of life. You guys won't

understand it unless you are there to experience it. And don't gimme any of that

bullshit that you know the meaning of life after you die. Death has nothing to

do with it,"

"So what is the meaning of life?" Jean asked.

"Dunno," Ranma chuckled, "I forgot to write it down,"

Everyone just stared at Ranma.

"Hey, what, you think I'm All-Knowing or something?" Ranma said, "I remember

what I could remember. I forgot tons of crap already. I used to know stuff that

completely contradicts the laws of physics and energy and such that everyone

believes. I just can't remember it now,"

Everyone's face faulted.

Ranma scratched his head, "Man, what the hell am I talking about this crap

anyway? Oh, it's because you asked me to speed down time. Way to go, Asuka,"

"Well, we have a lot of time to waste," Cyclops commented.

"Yeah, and I don't wanna waste it explaining stuff to you guys since you'll

not only not believe it, but you also won't understand it," Ranma stated.

"You seem to give us less credit than you take us for," Jean stated.

"Nope. Quite the opposite, you guys give yourself more credit than where its

due,"

Ranma ended up getting duped into telling more of his stories and what he

knew. The entire group ended up sitting down around a table that opened up

shortly after their arrival and hadn't moved since.

Asuka seemed bored as she listened to Ranma explain thing the had explained to

her before. She never really said a word of complaint. She had to admit that

hearing Ranma's story was interesting, especially when hearing about his past,

before she and he met.

He went on to explain his adventures in detail from when his life was changed

at the moment his friends and family were killed in the Nerima Massacre all the

way up to the moment he left his world with Asuka to come to this world.

They all listened eagerly, even Logan, transfixed on every word he said.

Whether or not they believed him completely was an entirely different story. All

they knew was that the stories Ranma told where incredible to listen to.

Before long, they realized that it was nearing evening.

"Oh man, it's almost six," Asuka noticed, "Shouldn't that guy be showing up

soon?"

"Is that him?" Ranma pointed toward a young looking man with long brown hair

wearing nice clothes entering the bar.

Logan grinned, "Let's fine out,"

"Logan," Cyclops said, "What do you plan on doing?"

Logan walked up to the man and grabbed him by the shirt collar and lifted him

up off the ground and slammed him against a wall.

Ranma chuckled, "I like Logan's approach,"

"W-what are you doing?" the man asked in surprise.

Logan extended one of this claws and held it close to the man's face.

"I have a question to ask you," Logan sneered, "And if you answer me wrong,

you'll be breathing through a hole in your neck,"

"W-what do you want?" the man stammered.

"Where can I find adamantium?" Logan asked.

"Um, er," the man began to say.

"That's not the answer I'm lookin' fer," Logan said.

"Logan," came Romel's voice.

Logan turned toward the bartender.

"That's not the guy," he said.

"Oh," Logan said, realizing he had made a mistake.

Logan put the man down and gently fixed up the man's shirt, a somewhat

embarrassed look on his face.

"Sorry 'bout that, bub," Logan said, somewhat embarrassed.

Ranma burst out laughing, pointing at Logan, "Hahahaha, ya dumb fuck,"

"Whatcha call me?" Logan felt this urge to go into a berserker rage on

Ranma.

Asuka narrowed toward Ranma, "What the heck are you talking about, Ranma? You

probably would've done the exact same thing if Logan didn't do it first,"

Ranma gave a shy smile.

"Hm, I guess you're right,"

Asuka and the others walked together down one of the busy streets of Lowtown.

They were all headed toward a large building in the adjacent town. The tower was

a United States Embassy for Madripoor. It turned out that the guy that Logan

eventually interrogated was an Embassy employee that had a fondness for good

booze and the Princess Bar served excellent booze.

The Embassy was nothing more than a US government funded military base that

had been established to recover whatever stolen US materials back into US hands.

Since so many materials passed through the black market of Madripoor, embassy

workers' jobs were to work undercover and acquire back whatever has been stolen

and brought to Madripoor to be sold for a profitable price.

Their job was the acquire such items through whatever means, good or bad.

"Hee hee, I'm gonna get to attack a military base, this is gonna be fun,"

Ranma was grinning like an idiot, "I haven't fought the military in a while. I

wonder if the United States military is as well-armed and trained as the

Japanese ones I've went up against,"

"You're the only person that looks forward to this kinda stuff," Asuka

muttered.

"Perhaps, that's why I'm so unique," Ranma chuckled.

"I really have problems with turning a blind eye to something like that,"

Cyclops commented.

"What's so hard about it?" Ranma grinned, "You only have ONE eye to turn

instead of two,"

Cyclops sneered toward Ranma.

"Dude, I don't care if you have problems with this," Ranma said, "In case you

haven't noticed, we wouldn't be in here in the first place had you just taken my

suggestion and grabbed the vibranium from the auction before it got attacked. If

you really think about it, what I'm gonna be doing now is a whole lot worse than

before. You should've just gone with my suggestion and gone with the lesser of

two evils,"

"I still think this is wrong," Jean said.

Ranma nodded, "This is wrong in every sense of the word. It's just that I

don't care if it's wrong. That's the difference,"

"Does he do this back on your world?" Jean turned toward Asuka, "Does he do

these kinds of things all the time, doing illegal things?"

Asuka shrugged, "Unfortunately, yes,"

"Yeah, but I don't do it THAT often," he said.

new stuff 7/25

"It doesn't matter if you don't do it that often," Asuka said, "It's the fact

that you do it anyway that's just wrong,"

"Thanks, Asuka, without you being my conscience, I probably would've been long

down the road toward being evil," Ranma said sarcastically.

The group continued to walk toward their destination, Asuka nagging him a bit

more until she finally gave up. When she did, she turned toward Jean and Cyclops

and silently told them that she tried her best but it was useless. It turned out

that the two of them had asked her to see if she could convince Ranma to go

about acquiring the adamantium through other means.

Before long, they found themselves standing in front of a large iron gate that

led to a large open field that led up a giant rectangular five-story brick

building.

"Hm, it seems like we're at the right place," Ranma said, reading the small

sign right next to the gate that indicated it was indeed the building they were

looking for.

He turned toward Cyclops and Jean and Logan.

"Well, it seems like we are now at an impasse," Ranma grinned, "You guys

obviously know what I plan on doing, and that's storming this place, generally

making a nuisance of myself until I find what I'm looking for. Do you guys

intend to try and stop me? Cause if you do try to stop me, you might as well

tell me now so I can just knock you all three out right here and now. Otherwise,

if you don't intend to stop me, you can just turn a blind eye,"

Cyclops was silent for a moment as he contemplated what to do.

"Perhaps I can help make the decision for you," Ranma said, "Me: really really

strong. X-Men: really really weak compared to me. Any questions?"

"Gee, aren't we more modest than usual?" Asuka muttered, "It seems like all

that power's going to your damn head,"

Ranma chuckled, "Whatcha talkin' about? I was referring to myself WITHOUT my

powers,"

Logan glanced toward the side where he spotted a bar, "You can count me out.

I'll just wait. I'm thirsty. You can find me in the bar when you're done,"

"That's a smart move," Ranma said.

"I'm not walking away because I'm scared of y'Ranma," Logan muttered, walking

away, "I'm only walking away because I'd rather spend my time enjoying some good

booze,"

"Instead of unconscious by my own hands?" Ranma asked, grinning.

"I'm not even gonna bother answering that," Logan muttered as he disappeared

into the bar.

Ranma looked at Cyclops and Jean, "Well, what about you two? You with me or

against me?"

Cyclops took several minutes before he sighed and said, "Count me out. I'm not

in the mood to fighting you, Ranma,"

Ranma smiled, "Glad to hear that. Frankly, I'm not in the mood to fighting

against you either,"

"I'm coming along," Jean said.

Ranma did a double take, "Huh?"

"I'll join you," Jean said.

"Why?" Ranma and Cyclops both asked.

"The guy we interrogated is a employee at the Embassy," Jean said, "When I was

using telepathy on him, I was able to extract a general layout of how the

Embassy looks like. What you're looking for is located deep underground. Even

though I've never been inside this building, I'm sure I can lead you directly to

elevators down underground,"

Ranma smirked, "That's great, but you do know that if you do something like

that, you'd basically be my accomplice,"

Jean was silent for a moment before she said, "I think this is the lesser of

two evils. Since it's obvious you're going to go in causing a lot of trouble, at

least with my help, you won't have to go wandering around wondering where to go

next causing more trouble in the process. This way, you'll be in and out with

the least amount of time which would mean the least amount of trouble,"

"You definitely have a point," Ranma said.

"I'll come along," Cyclops said, not wanting his wife and Ranma to be doing

this all alone. It wasn't that he didn't trust his wife, it was because he

didn't really trust Ranma.

Ranma smirked, "Jealous, are we?"

"What? I am not!" Cyclops quickly said, "I'm just merely concerned,"

"For your wife," Ranma added.

Cyclops tried to think of something to say.

Ranma placed and arm around Jean, and smiled mischievously, "Don't worry, your

wife's in good hands,"

"How come I have a good feeling that you don't mean a word of that?" Cyclops

said wryly.

Jean, blushing slightly, reached around and grabbed Ranma's arm and removed it

from her shoulder. For some odd reason, when he placed her arm around her, she

suddenly recalled those amazing sensations she felt before when she thought he

had snapped her neck.

"You should stay here and keep Asuka company," Ranma told Cyclops, "That way,

you can take care of her and I don't hafta worry about anything happening to

her,"

Cyclops glanced toward Asuka and then back at Ranma, "What, is this some kind

of trade?"

"Huh? What the heck are you talking about?" Ranma was confused, "I'm just

asking you to look after her,"

"Look after me? What, I'm not coming with you?" Asuka was surprised to hear.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope, not this time. No offense, but you're gonna be

slowing me down since I plan on just blazing through this place full speed. If

you came along, I'll either be weighed down carrying you, or slowed down waiting

for you to catch up,"

"Weighed down? What, you think I'm fat?" Asuka said loudly.

"Huh? Where the hell did THAT come from?" Ranma was stunned.

"Is that why you'd rather have Jean go with you instead of me?" Asuka asked.

"Um...well...man, what the hell's going on here?," Ranma recovered himself,

"Actually, for your information, yes, I'd rather have her come along because she

can get me to the adamantium quickly. Can YOU get me there quicker? If so, then

I'd have no problems replacing her with you,"

Jean regarded Ranma as if offended.

Ranma held up his hands defensively, "Now don't go jumping to conclusions. I'm

not in the mood,"

"Oh, I didn't realize that," Asuka said, "I guess you do have a point now that

I think about it,"

"Don't worry, we won't take long," Ranma said, "It'll probably be only, like,

twenty to thirty minutes. In the meanwhile, just hang out in the bar with

Logan,"

Asuka smirked, "Fine, but I'll drink,"

Ranma narrowed his eyes, "I assume you're smarter than that,"

Asuka's back was already toward Ranma as she was already halfway to the bar

where Logan had disappeared into.

"Ranma, is she of legal age?" Jean asked.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, she's over eighteen. That means she's no longer the

jailbait she used to be when I first met her when she was fourteen,"

"Not THAT kind of legal!" Jean said.

"Oh?" Ranma said, "Then what kinda legal age do you mean?"

"I mean legal age for drinking," Jena asked, "Is she of legal age to drink?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope,"

"Honey, just stay here with Asuka and keep her company," Jean said, knowing

Cyclops would do a good job of keeping Asuka from drinking since she most likely

would simply out of spite of Ranma's wishes.

Cyclops turned looked toward Asuka as she disappeared into the bar and then

back at Jean, "You sure?"

"It's for the better," Jean said.

Cyclops said, "Okay, I guess I could do that,"

He headed after Asuka and into the bar.

Ranma said, "Well, I guess it'll only be the two of us,"

Jean nodded, "Yes, it will,"

Ranma grinned, "Cool,"

Jean seemed nervous.

"Man, how come I'm starting to have second thoughts about this?"

Asuka watched as Logan downed the twentieth shot of hard liquor and seemed to

show no signs of being buzzed, let alone being drunk.

"Y'sure you don't want one, kid?" Logan smirked, "I'll be more than happy to

get ya a few shots,"

Asuka shook her head, "No thanks, I'm fine,"

"Suit, yerself, kid," Logan downed another shot.

"Shouldn't you be, like, completely drunk right now?" Asuka asked.

Logan shook his head, "No, my mutant abilities generally prevents it.

Nowadays, I barely even feel a buzz until I reach around thirty shots of the

hard stuff,"

"Are you, like, an alcoholic?" she had to ask.

Cyclops snickered at the comment. Was Logan an alcoholic? He sure drank enough

that he would be beyond that of an alcoholic based on human standards, but how

did that apply to someone with his unique constitution?

Logan regarded Asuka for a moment before saying, "Nope. I ain't no alcoholic.

Wouldn't mind though. Sometimes, I wouldn't mind bein' able t'drink my problems

away like most people could,"

Asuka turned toward Cyclops and noticed he wasn't drinking, "How come you're

not drinking?"

He blushed, images of Asuka looking at his underwear in his head, as he said,

"Oh, well, um, I don't usually drink,"

Logan smirked slightly as he noticed Cyclops' rather odd reaction around

Asuka.

"You're a cute girl, kid," Logan smirked toward Asuka.

"Um, thanks," Asuka felt embarrassed, wondering where that came from.

"Dontcha think so, One-Eye?" Logan asked Cyclops.

"Um, y-yeah, very pretty," Cyclops said, still blushing.

"Y'better watch out," Logan chuckled, nudging at Cyclops' side, "One-Eye here

seems to have a thing for red-heads. As you can tell, Jean, his wife, is a red-

head,"

Cyclops cleared his throat, feeling like he was being suffocated by the

tension he was feeling. He needed to excuse himself so he could compose himself.

"Um, I'm going to get a soda," Cyclops said somewhat nervously, "Would you

want one as well?"

He seriously hoped she didn't want a drink because he just wanted to have some

time to himself. He had merely asked her out of courtesy.

"I'm fine," she said, "Thanks anyway,"

Cyclops quickly got out of the table and walked away to the bar to order

something to drink.

After Cyclops had left, Asuka suddenly felt a bit nervous being around Logan.

How come he suddenly complimented her on how pretty she was. Sure, she knew she

was pretty, but most guys that said that usually had some kind of thing for her.

Does that mean Logan had a thing for her?

"Kid, I think One-Eye over there has a crush on you," Logan smirked.

"What?" Asuka's eyes widened in surprise, "B-but he's married!"

"Keep it down or he's gonna hear," Logan said.

"B-but he's married," she repeated softly.

Logan shrugged, "Well, yeah, but didn't you see his face? Every time he talks

to you, he's blushing? What gives?"

Asuka thought about it and suddenly came to that realization, "Oh man, now

that I think of it, you're right. Every time I talk to him, I see him blushing,

at least as of recently,"

"Not that it's any of my business, but did you do anything say anything to him

that might make him suddenly develop a crush on you?" Logan asked.

Asuka shook her head, "No. I have no idea. We've rarely talked to each other.

I've only talked to him only a handful of times,"

"Seems like there's something about him that's making him blush whenever he

talks to you," Logan said, "And from my experience, it seems like it could only

be one thing,"

"Oh man, what should I do?" she asked, "He's married,"

Logan smirked. 'Get him to leave Jean so then I can show her what it's like to

be with a real man.' He wanted to say but didn't.

"It's up to you, kid," Logan shrugged, trying to act casual.

Asuka tried to think of something for a moment. Suddenly a thought crossed her

mind.

"Wow, I could really make Ranma jealous if I use this to my advantage," Asuka

smirked. She suddenly realized what a horrible person she was and said, "No, I

would never do something like that, to use someone to make someone jealous,"

"Hm, I wonder if One-Eye might be interested in you to make Jean jealous,"

Logan commented.

"What? Really? Why?" she asked.

He shrugged, "Beats me. It's not like their marriage is on the rocks or

nothin', but it's definitely had its ups and downs. Maybe its in its down period

right now. Who knows,"

Logan couldn't help but wonder if what he was saying was true. Maybe Jean and

Cyclops weren't getting along as well as everyone suspected.

"I really dunno what I'm sayin'," Logan said, "All I figure I'd mention to ya

is that Cyclops seems to blush an awful lot when talkin' to ya. It could mean

nothing but from what I figure, it's a good chance-"

"That it's something, that he seems to have a crush on me," she said.

Ranma had mentioned some weird theory about that, that anyone that blushed

when talking to someone usually meant they subconsciously liked that person.

Could Ranma's theory, as crazy as it sounded back then when he stated it, really

be true?

If a person blushed while talking, that meant he or she liked that person he

or she was talking to, right?

Right?

Jean blushed, "I can't believe you would say that to me. I'm a married woman,"

"Hey, all I'm saying is that this elevator's taking pretty long to reach the

bottom," Ranma said innocently, "And it's only the two of us in here. I wasn't

the one that brought up anything about doing anything weird in here,"

"Neither was I thinking of any of that until you mentioned it," Jean said in

annoyance.

new stuff 7/29

Ranma grinned, "Right,"

Jean cleared her throat, "Go ahead and assume whatever you like,"

"I sure will," Ranma said.

She secretly wished with all her might that her telepathic abilities worked on

Ranma. She desperately wanted to know what thoughts passed through Ranma's head

or what he was thinking at the moment. It was most likely something rather she

preferred not to know.

"Your powers are awesome," Ranma commented genuinely.

"Thanks," she said, a bit flattered.

"We didn't hafta fight a single person," Ranma said, "All we did was walk

right passed everyone and they thought we were actually fellow employees,"

Jean said, "If Spider-Man was here, he'd probably say something like 'It's

like using the Force from Star Wars',"

"Star Wars? The Force?" he asked.

"Nevermind," she said, "'Star Wars' is from the movies,"

Ranma said, "Oh, well I don't watch movies so I have no idea what you're

talking about,"

The two of them decided to continue and indulge in some random conversation as

the slow elevator descended deep underground. Before long, they reached the

bottom sublevel.

"Damn," Jean said.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"My powers are gone," she said.

"Suppressors?" he asked.

She nodded.

"How can you tell?" he looked around, wondering where the suppressors were.

She said, "My main abilities is my telepathic abilities. I constantly hear

people close to my area's thoughts. When my powers disappear, it suddenly

becomes really quiet and I don't hear thought thoughts anymore,"

"I guess that makes sense," Ranma nodded, "If suppressors weren't put in place

in places like this, then than means any strong telepath can just walk right in

and steal what he or she wants and leave with the goods without a single person

knowing,"

Jean nodded, "Exactly,"

"Say, does that ever get weird for you, hearing people's thoughts and all?"

She shook her head, "No. It's actually the opposite. When I don't hear

people's thoughts, it feels weird. This is because I'm so used to it. I usually

just shut out anything I don't want to hear or care to hear. Think of it as

Logan's sense of smell. He can filter out everything if he wants to,"

"I hope so," Ranma chuckled, "It'd suck for him if he can smell dog shit from

a mile away and can't filter that scent out,"

Jean didn't seem amused at Ranma's vulgarity. As funny as the comment was,

Ranma's crude way of speech was definitely something that needed getting used

to.

"Are you always like that? Crude and vulgar?" she had to ask.

"Yep," he smiled.

The elevator doors opened to reveal a long metallic corridor that lead

straight ahead. At the other end of the corridor was an intersection that led to

the left and right.

"I'll wait for you upstairs," Jean stayed on the elevator as Ranma headed out.

Ranma asked, "What, you're not coming with me?" he asked.

"No," she answered, "That way, when the alarm sounds, I can use my telepathy

to stop them from coming down. It'll buy you the time you need to get the

adamantium and be out of here,"

Ranma started laughing, "'When the alarms sounds'? What, you think I can't do

this without being detected? Hey, if you can get us down here without being

detected, I betcha I can get us the adamantium and back up without being

detected as well,"

"I don't have my powers," Jean stated, "There's no way we can get us by guards

without being detected, and you know there will be plenty of guards patrolling

this area. You're going to have to use your powers to get use through here

undetected,"

"Who says I'm gonna powers?"

Jean accidentally tripped an alarm, moving a bit too fast for the motion

sensor. The motion sensors they had to constantly came across could easily

bypass if they moved right by it at an extremely slow and steady rate. Jean,

unfortunately, unaccustomed to the actually stress of knowing that she had to

move at such a rate, ended up making a mistake.

Ranma laughed, "You tripped the alarm, not me,"

At the moment, the two of them were dressed in army fatigues and were only a

short distance away from their destination, a giant steel vault that would lead

to the adamantium on the other side. Ranma had incapacitated two soldiers and

had stripped them of their clothes.

The corridor was suddenly bathed in a red light.

"And we were so close, too," Ranma said, sounds of scurrying soldiers easily

heard converging on their location.

"Now's not the time to be worrying about that," Jean said, concerned.

"Follow me," Ranma said as he made a break for it.

Since the motion sensors had been tripped, there was no need to use stealth

and keep at a slow, steady pace.

Ranma kept at a slow pace, for himself that is, as Jean ran along side him.

"So, where do we go?" he asked.

"We head down this corridor and make a right," Jean said, recalling what she

remembered, "What we're looking for will be right through a giant vault door,"

Jean yelped in surprise as she was suddenly picked up and realized Ranma had

broke out in a quick sprint, the walls zooming by her with blurring speed. She

felt a tremendous amount of g-force exerted on her body as Ranma's agility

kicked in as he made a quick right-handed turn at the end of the corridor

without slowing down one bit.

"I-it's that vault where it'll be store," Jean said. When she noticed that the

vault door looked nothing shy of a giant bank vault door made steel, it made her

realize that perhaps Ranma might have to use his powers to get through something

like that.

"Heh, haven't broke one of these in ages," Ranma chuckled, remaining in full

sprint.

He quickly placed Jean down right by the front of the vault.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, "It seems like you're going to have to

use your powers to bust this thing open,"

"Says you," he said.

He executed a quickly powerful open-hand strike at the center of the vault

door. With a single strike, the vault door collapsed inward. Hitting it a second

time, the door fell inwards and into the vault, knocked right off its hinges.

"That's what's funny about these things," Ranma chuckled, "They're actually

really strong, but their hinges are weak,

Jean was a bit surprised to see the vault door lying on the floor as she and

Ranma entered the vault. Although she had seen quite a bit of things in her

days, and knew of many people that could do such a thing with brute strength,

but she had never seen someone use brute strength with such finesse, if that was

possible. It was as if Ranma was able to direct his power toward specified

locations.

Ranma peered down the corridor leading to the vault and caught sight of a

group of soldiers, all dressed in military fatigues, rounding a corner, weapons

drawn.

"Looks like we have company," he stated.

Jean looked toward where Ranma was looking and quickly took cover from their

line of sight and fire, should they start opening fire.

The sounds of bullet fire could be heard as bullets started flying in via the

open vault door. Ranma just swayed back and forth, dodging the bullets as they

whizzed by.

"Damn, I guess they believe in that 'Shoot first, ask questions later' motto,"

Ranma chuckled.

Dodging bullets all the while, he reached down and picked up the vault door

and placed it back over the opening. Even though the door no longer hand hinges

to hold it in place from being broken through, the sheer weight of the door

meant that none of the solders on the other side would be able to physically

move it so that it would fall inward from its current resting place.

"Wow, you lifted that door like it weighs like nothing," Jean was impressed.

Even for someone like the Hulk needed to show some sign of strain lifting such

enormous weight, "That door must've weighed close to twenty tons,"

"If it did, I have no idea," Ranma chuckled, "It could weigh ten times as much

and I won't even realize it,"

Jean wondered what Ranma meant by that as she followed him into farther into

the vault.

Looking around, both of them came to realize that the vault was anything but

that. If one heard of the term 'vault', they would generally think of the

interior of a bank vault that usually housed all the bank's money. The vault

they were in looked very much like the interior of a large warehouse, a huge

open space roughly the same size as half a football field.

Ranma whistled at all the large rows of shelves the lined the vault that

stretched all the way back.

"Wow, there's a lotta crap here," Ranma commented.

"This is where all the acquired items await to be transported back to the

United States," she said, "This is all the stuff that's been acquired here in

Madripoor in the past couple of weeks. At the end of the month, everything will

be shipped out to the United States and the job of acquiring the leaked

materials will be started all over again,"

"Really? How do you know?" he asked.

"Remember? I used telepathy on the employee we interrogated," she said,

tapping her temple, "All the information I got was from him. Unfortunately,

because it his job was only in actually transporting the items down in here for

storage, I have no idea where the adamantium would be stored,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Um, this adamantium, exactly what does it look

like?"

Jean regarded Ranma.

"Really, what does it look like?" he asked.

"You're looking for adamantium, and you have no idea what it looks like?" she

asked in surprise. This guy constantly surprised her.

Ranma shook his head, "No idea. What's it look like, bars of metal to be

melted and formed into what you want?"

"No," she said, shocked at Ranma's ignorance, "Adamantium needs to be in

liquid form and constantly maintained at a very high temperature or it'll

harden. If it hardens, the form it takes on after it hardens is the form it

maintains,"

"Oh," he said, "So does that mean we hafta be looking for vats of liquid

metal?"

"In a sense, yes," she said, "But the vats need to be constantly heated so

it'll need to be supplied power in doing so,"

"Cool," Ranma said, "We can look around the walls because that's where power

outlets would most likely be,"

"Your logic is kind of amusing," Jean snickered, "There're no guarantees. I'm

sure there are self-sustaining equipment around that don't need any outside

power source to keep the adamantium in liquid form but it's a place to start,"

Ranma turned his attention elsewhere.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you," he said toward one of the isles out of his

view, "We're just here for something,"

An elderly man that looked very close to the age of retirement stepped out

from between one of them isles, "P-please don't hurt me,"

"Um, I just said I wasn't going to hurt you," Ranma commented, "Asking for me

to not hurt you after I said I wasn't going to hurt you is kinda redundant,

dontcha think?"

The elderly man didn't see the humor in that statement, "W-what do you want?"

"We're here looking for some adamantium," he said, "Where do you guys keep

it?"

The man said, "W-we don't have any adamantium,"

"No use lying," Ranma said, "We know there's adamantium here,"

"We don't have it anymore," the man said, "You're too late. It was already

moved,"

"Moved?" Ranma asked, "Where?"

"I-I don't know," the man said, "I'm only in charge of keeping track of what

passes through the vault door,"

Ranma regarded the man for a moment before he said, "Hm, it seems like you're

telling the truth. Does it being moved have anything to do with the recent

attacks on some United States facilities where adamantium and vibranium were

stolen?"

"Yes," the man said, "You missed getting what you wanted by several hours,"

Ranma sighed as he turned toward Jean, "You know what that means? All this,

coming here to Madripoor, it was for nothing,"

He signed.

"Damn, that sucks,"

Asuka looked down at the many shots glasses on the table in front of her.

"Okay, I'll try one shot, what the heck," she said, mustering the nerve to do

so. Logan seemed to have no problem drinking it so why should she?

She and Logan were sitting together at the bar while Cyclops had gone outside.

Logan seemed to be egging him out to do something by constantly offering Asuka

something to drink.

Logan was surprised to hear that, "What, you wanna drink?"

"Well, you kept offering so I'll take you up on your offer," she stated.

"Sorry, kid, but I don't think so," Logan said.

"But you were just offering before, and quite persistently I might add," Asuka

said, narrowing her eyes toward him.

"I was only offering you some alcohol because it pisses ol' One-Eye off,"

Logan smirked, "He knows full well that you're under the legal age to drink, and

me knowing and not caring about it and offering you drinks makes him angry,"

"Legal age? But I am of legal age," Asuka said, "I'm twenty. In Japan, the

legal age is twenty,"

"Um, well, in America, it's twenty-one," Logan said.

"But we're not in America," she stated, "We're in Madripoor,"

"So?" Logan said.

Asuka said, "Nevermind,"

Logan offered her one of his shot glasses, "If y'really want a shot, go right

ahead. One word of caution, it's pretty strong stuff though. That's Mandripoor

Spirits, and it's got a lot more alcohol than average hard liquors,"

Madripoor Spirits was Mandripoor's chief exports. It was one of the strongest

forms of alcohol for human consumption. Heck, it didn't even contain real

alcohol. It contained a synthetic form of alcohol and was strong enough that it

was considered right up there with Moonshine and Grain Alcohol, usually around

190 proof, 95% alcohol, more than double the alcoholic content of traditional

hard liquors. It was also considered very safe to drink. It didn't damage a

person's liver like real alcohol and the person never had to worry about

suffering from a hangover. Aside from the risk of doing something incredibly

stupid and embarrassing while drunk and not wandering into oncoming traffic

while drunk, drinking Madripoor Spirits was relatively safe.

Asuka eyed shot glass for a moment. Ranma would most likely be upset if he

found out that she drank. But in doing so, it would show to him that she wasn't

a little girl. She knew Ranma still viewed her as a little girl, like the young

fourteen year old he had first met long ago, not the grown up young woman she

now was.

"Fine, I'll try it," she said.

"Y'got spunk," Logan smirked, pushing forward the shot glass for Asuka to

take, "Okay, here. Y'wanna give the toast?"

Asuka said, "Um, like what kind of toast?"

"Any toast," he said.

Asuka thought for a long moment before she said, "How about a toast to bread?"

"Bread?" Logan asked, confused.

"Yeah, without bread, there'll be no toast," Asuka smiled meekly, feeling like

she had said something really stupid in an attempt at being funny. Logan seemed

like the kind of person that didn't have all that much a sense of humor.

Logan started laughing, "That's funny, kid. I like it. All right, a toast to

bread, because without bread, there'll be no toast,"

He raised his shot glass up and gently tapped Asuka's shot glass.

The two of them downed their shot glass.

Asuka gagged as the alcohol burned her throat on its way down. It made her

eyes tear and almost made her want to bring it back up as quickly as it had gone

down. She ended up coughing a few times, her face turning red.

"I've gotta give y'credit, kid," Logan smirked, impressed, "You've got a lotta

guts,"

Asuka smiled meekly, coughing a few more times, "I-it wasn't so bad. Let's try

a second round,"

"No need, kid," Logan grinned, "One is more than enough for you,"

"I'm a big girl, I can handle more," Asuka said, as if wanting to prove to

something to someone.

Logan said, "Well, if you're a big girl, you'll also know when you're at your

limit. One's your limit,"

Asuka shrugged, "Fine, if you say so,"

Deep down inside, she felt glad he said that. She didn't know if she could

possibly down another one of those things again. It tasted more disgusting than

anything she had ever tasted. If a taste could be described as 'offensive', that

was the taste.

At that moment, Cyclops entered the bar. He had excused himself and walked

around the block a few times to cool down a bit. He knew Logan had been

purposely offering Asuka something to drink just to get on his nerves. It was

always like that, Logan always doing something to get on his nerves. Rather than

whisk Logan off to somewhere private and chew his ear off like usual and leaving

Asuka alone at the bar full of dubious patrons, he decided to let it slide.

"It's not like he would deliberately give an under-aged girl alcohol," Cyclops

told himself.

When he approached the table and was about to sit back down, he noticed the

rather glassy look in Asuka's eyes. Although she seemed somewhat aware of where

she was, she looked a bit out of it.

"You gave her a shot, didn't you?" Cyclops asked Logan coldly.

Logan said, "Yep. She wanted a shot so I gave her one,"

"I'm tired, I'm gonna go to shleep," Asuka slurred, resting her arms and head

and closing her eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" Cyclops said.

"Nothing's wrong with me," Logan retorted, "She asked for a shot and I gave

her a shot,"

"You were the one asking her if she wanted one before," Cyclops said, "It's

probably because of your damn peer pressure that got her,"

"No, it wasn't that," Logan sneered, "And what do you care anyway? I gave her

the drink, not you. You weren't even around,"

The muscles around Cyclops' jawline tightened, gesturing toward Asuka, "Look

at her, she's already halfway gone,"

He picked up the lone shot glass sitting in front of Asuka and sniffed it.

"Whatcha give her? This stuff smells much stronger than regular hard liquor,"

Cyclops said.

"Does it matter?" Logan asked.

Cyclops looked at Asuka's sleeping form.

"Heh, I can't wait to see Ranma's face when he gets back and sees his

companion passed out," Logan snickered, "Well, at least the kid's one of them

sleepy drunks,"

"Ranma's going to be seriously angry," Cyclops commented.

"So?" Logan shrugged, "It's not like I'm afraid of him or nothin'. You need to

lighten up, One-Eye,"

"And how am I supposed to lighten up?" Cyclops asked coldly, "We have a girl

passed out here that we're supposed to watch over that happens to be companions

with a guy that took on Juggernaut, Magneto, Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, and

Apocalypse. Do you want a guy like that pissed at you?"

Logan shrugged, "Not really, but it still doesn't mean I'm scared of him. And

for yer information, I gave her Madripoor Spirits. She's in no danger of getting

in trouble since she's one of those sleepy drunks,"

"Why did you give it to her in the first place?" Cyclops said, "Did you find

some kind of amusement in seeing her drunk?"

"No," Logan sneered, "Perhaps that visor of yours is on too tight. It's really

simple t'figure out that even someone like you should be able t'get it. She

asked me for a shot and I gave her one,"

Cyclops walked around the table and picked Asuka up, "I'm gonna take Asuka to

the grocery store and get her some water,"

He had passed a grocery store during his trip around the block and wanted to

get her some water to wash the Madripoor Spirits from her system. Madripoor

Spirits created the exact same feeling of being drunk as that of real alcohol.

However, unlike real alcohol, the effects of feeling drunk can be completely

alleviated if the person drank a couple of cups of water.

"Fine, if y'wanna get her some water, g'right ahead," Logan shrugged.

He watched as Cyclops carried Asuka out of the bar and disappeared. After a

moment, he laughed as he realized something.

"Heh, it probably would've been easier to've asked the bartender for some

water than to go to the grocery store,"

Ranma and Jean emerged from the Embassy unscathed.

Getting out had been relatively easy, especially for someone like Ranma. All

he did was wait on the other side of the vault door. The moment the demolition

team managed to get through, Ranma jumped out and right into the middle of the

large group of soldiers. Because he was in the middle of the ground of soldiers,

no soldier dared to shoot at him for fear of hitting their own. That had been

their downfall as Ranma incapacitated every single member in this fashion, all

of them not prepared to fight against someone like him in close combat.

When they made it to the elevator, Jean used her powers to make everyone they

came across think they were fellow employees evacuating the building after

hearing the alarm go off.

"Don't worry, I'm sure there are other places where we can find the adamantium

you're looking for," Jean tried to assure him.

"Like how and where?" he asked, "Aside from the on guy working in the vault,

are you sure no one even knew that the adamantium was secretly transported?"

She nodded, "I'm sure. When I got my powers back, I did a scan of the entire

facility and not a single person on there knew. There was only one person that

knew of the person that knew where it was going, but it's no use because the

person that actually knew where it was going is actually away escorting it to

wherever it's going,"

Ranma sighed, "That truly sucks,"

"We can ask Beast if he knows of other places," Jean said confidently, "If

anyone were to find out of how or where to find what you're looking for, Beast

is the guy to go to,"

"I hope so," Ranma said.

The two of them left the Embassy grounds and calmly crossed the street to the

bar where Cyclops, Logan, and Asuka were waiting for them. Entering, they

glanced around for a bit before they spotted Logan.

"Unless you got the stuff you were lookin' for and dropped it off at the

Blackbird before comin' back, I assume you guys failed your mission," Logan

smirked.

"It wasn't there," Ranma answered, "It seems like the stuff was moved earlier

in the day, as a precaution to all those recent thefts,"

Logan said, "I figured something like that might be the case. It occurred to

me while I was waiting here, long after you two had gone in. The government can

be like that,"

Ranma looked around and noticed neither Cyclops nor Asuka were there.

"Where're Asuka and Cyclops?" he asked.

Logan smirked, "Asuka decided to have a shot of what I'm drinking. Seems like

she's a complete light-weight and can't hold her liquor. One-Eye took her to the

grocery store sober her up,"

"Did you give it to her because she asked or did you give it to her because

you peer pressured her into drinking?" Ranma asked flatly.

"She asked," Logan said.

Ranma sat down in one of the empty chairs, "Good answer. Had you peer

pressured her into it, I'd probably smack you around a few times,"

Logan grinned, his claws popping out while no one in the bar was looking, "Is

that a threat?"

"Now now," Jean said, somewhat annoyed, "Jeez, will you guys quit arguing with

one another? How long does this have to go on? Jeez,"

"I can beat you up," Ranma added his last word.

"And don't think I won't go down fighting," Logan smirked.

"Hmph!" The two of them looked away from one another.

Since the two of them seemed to have momentarily settled their differences,

that still left a few things that needed answering.

"Logan, you gave Asuka some alcohol?" Jean said, a bit appalled with what

Logan had done, "Why'd you do that?"

"I gave her Madripoor Spirits," Logan said, "And like I said before, she asked

me,"

"Oh," Jean seemed to calm down, "Madripoor Spirits? I guess that's all right,"

"Madripoor Spirits, what's that?" Ranma asked curiously.

"It can make you feel drunk," Jean said, "But you don't suffer any side-

effects like damage to your liver or a hangover. And with Logan and Cyclops here

to look after her, there's nothing much to worry about with her causing trouble

and ending up getting hurt for doing so while drunk. To get rid of that feeling,

just drinking a few glasses of water will get rid of that drunkenness right

away,"

"Well, in that case, that sounds pretty damn cool," Ranma stated, "Stuff like

that don't exist in my world,"

At that moment, a slightly drunk patron was walking by and accidentally

spilled a good portion of his glass of beer on Jean. Someone had bumped into him

by accident as they walked by as he was walking by the table.

"Oh man, I'm sorry," the man said.

Logan reached out and grabbed the man by the shirt collar, bringing his face

down low close to his own, "Yeah, you definitely will be,"

"Logan!" Jean said.

Logan sneered toward the man and let him go, the man quickly rushing away from

the table.

"I'll be right back," Jean excused herself to go to the restroom to clean

herself up.

After Jean was gone, Ranma got up from his seat, "I'm gonna go look for Asuka

and Cyclops. You said they were at the grocery store? Where is it?"

"Just go out and make a right," Logan said, somewhat familiar with this area,

"It's down the block on yer left,"

"Thanks," Ranma left the bar.

Logan had been tempted to mention to Ranma the odd observation he had noticed

with Cyclops blushing whenever he talked to Asuka, but had decided to say

nothing. If Ranma were to find out on his own that Cyclops had a thing for

Asuka, then so be it. If not, then so be it as well.

"It's none of my business anyway to tell him I think Cyclops has a thing for

Asuka,"

Asuka, still unconscious from being drunk, was having a dream.

"Asuka, um, are you busy?" Asuka heard Ranma's nervous voice muffled through

her bedroom door.

Since she lived alone in her own apartment, and the livingroom area was her

bedroom, it was really easy to hear a knock on the front door.

Asuka placed her book down, knowing full well that even if she was busy, she

would not be too busy for Ranma.

Ranma had been her neighbor and childhood friend since he first moved into her

apartment complex a few years ago.

"What do you want?" she asked, still angry at him for last night, when he she

had mistaken him for a panty thief. They lived next to each other for years and

Ranma still constantly made the mistake of climbing up to her balcony instead of

his own should he ever forget to bring his keys with him.

"May I come in?" he asked.

"Fine," she said in exasperation.

The door opened to reveal Ranma. He didn't enter the room. Instead, he choose

to lean against the doorjamb. Clad in his usual attire, Asuka wondered what he

found so special about that particular outfit.

"Whatcha want?" she asked.

"If you're busy, I'll come back later," he said, his voice soft, turning

around to leave.

She quickly said, "No. There's no need to go,"

He turned around to face her again.

"Um, is there something you wanted to ask me?" she asked, wondering what had

gotten into Ranma.

"I'm just curious as to how you like living here?" he asked from out of the

blue.

"W-what?" she asked, his question catching her off-guard.

"I'm moving," he said.

"W-what? You're moving?" she asked, "You've only moved in a short while

ago,"

"It's been several years since we became neighbors," he said.

"How come you're moving?" she asked.

He gave a sad smile, "I got a job offering over in the States. I hafta take

it. I need the money. Ever since my brother got in that car accident, there's no

way I can pay for his medical bills, not even if I take out a loan. At least

with the job, I can pay off his medical bills in installments over the course of

ten years. He's got a family and a mortgage. I don't. He needs my help or he'll

lose everything,"

"W-when are you moving?" she asked, feeling surreal. This couldn't be

happening. She had come so used to having him as a neighbor that the thought of

him not being around terrified her.

"Tomorrow," he said, patting his back pocket, "I already have the plane

ticket,"

"You still haven't answered my question," he said, "How do you like living

here?"

Asuka thought about that for a moment. She had lived here all her life. She

had already been accepted to Tokyo University and would be attending there in

the Fall after the Summer.

Ranma reached behind his pocket and produced his airplane ticket. To her

surprise, there were two of them.

"I bought two tickets," he said, "One is for me...the other would be for you,"

"For me?" she asked.

"Yeah," he asked, "Would you like to move with me to the States?"

Asuka was stunned and at a loss of words.

"If you do, that means you'll be leaving behind everything," Ranma said, "I

know how you've lived here all your life and all and how you got accepted to

Tokyo University on a scholarship and have your whole life planned out ahead of

you, to become a doctor and save countless lives. As much as I want to be a part

of that life, I can't,"

"I-I don't know what to say," she said, "H-how can you expect me to make a

choice like that?"

Ranma looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't, as if he was trying

to formulate the words.

He took several deep breaths.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm trying," he said, "It's really hard for me to say this..."

He paced back and forth, entering and exiting the room in the process. After a

minute or so of pacing, he turned toward her, his visage serious.

"I'm in love with you, there, I said it," he said, his voice nervous.

Asuka's eyes widened, completely shocked at hearing those words.

"I fell in love with you a long long time ago," he said, "It's just that I've

never gotten around to telling you until now,"

"Y-you have?" she felt like her life was now completely surreal.

Ranma scratched his head, "I have no idea when the heck I fell in love with

you, but I know I did. I realized I was in love with you somewhere back when you

got in that car accident. Even though you were fine, it scared me so much at the

thought that you could've died I've come to realize that I was in love with

you,"

"T-then?" Asuka's eyes widened in surprise, "You fell in love with me then?

T-that was so long ago! You mean you've been in love with me all those years?"

Ranma suddenly became defensive, "Hey, it's not like I was expecting it to

happen. But for some reason, it just happened,"

"Um, I don't know what to say," she said.

"There, I laid it all out," he sighed in relief, "I know it might be a bit

abrupt, but I had to get it out. It's just that now that I'll be leaving for the

State and not coming back, I've realized that I need to lay everything on the

line and tell you. I know you're all set to become someone great in your life,

and I'm pretty sure it's all my fault for waiting for so long, but I needed to

get this out. I knew that if I didn't tell you, I'd be making a big mistake

because I know I'll be constantly wondering along the lines of 'what if',"

She smiled, "I remember one of your sayings, don't live a life of 'What Ifs'

live a life of 'Why nots',"

"That's right," Ranma chuckled nervously, "I guess I'm practicing what I

preach,"

She smiled.

"I know this is all of a sudden, but I figure that as sudden and shocking as

this may be, it might be a good enough reason for you to come to the States with

me," he said, "We're not going to live well because I'll be using up most of

what I earn to pay for my brother's medical bill, but I can guarantee that I'll

always love you. That's the only thing I can offer at this point in time,"

"Y-you love me? A-are you for real?" she asked, suddenly feeling tears welting

up around her eyes.

Ranma nodded, "Yep,"

Tears started to flow.

"A-are you okay?" he asked, rushing toward her to sit by her side.

She looked down at her hands and noticed tears falling uncontrollably down on

them, "T-they won't stop,"

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"N-no," she said, knowing full well that their neither tears of sadness nor

pain. They were tears of happiness.

"Ranma...y-you have no idea how long I've waited to hear that," she said.

"What?" he asked.

"I-I started to have doubts," she said, almost breaking down into a fit of

sobbing, "I started to have doubts that someone like you would ever love someone

like me,"

"What? Why would you think that?" he asked.

"I-I don't know," she said, "It's just that I always see all those women

flocking over you. You go on dinners with beautiful heiresses to giant

zaibatsu's and can basically choose from any women you want that I can't

understand why you would choose someone like me, a poor high school student

working a full-time job just to make enough to pay for rent, let alone enough to

eat,"

Ranma smiled, "Because you make me happy and smile. You make me glad to come

home after a long day of work, because I know you're next door,"

"I-I've loved you since the first day you moved in," she said, tears still

flowing, "But after a while, when I started to believe we would never be, I

tried to fall out of love with you...but I never could. It hurt so much seeing

you leave for dates, wondering every time that date could be 'the one' for you,

the one that would sweep you off your feet an whisk you away,"

Ranma embraced her in a loving hug, "Oh man, I feel like an idiot to have done

that, to come to you asking you for advice about what to wear for dates and

such, knowing that deep down inside, it was tearing you apart,"

"I've learned to hide my feelings well, ever since both my parents died," she

said.

Ranma broke the embrace to gazed deep into her eyes, "God, I love you, more

now than ever before. I'm a fool to never've realized how perfect you even when

you lived right next to me,"

Asuka sobbed in happiness, "I love you. And yes, I'm willing to throw

everything away to be with you. I'll go with you to the States,"

"Keep in mind that I'm not some princess that's going to bring you home to

some castle in the states," Ranma said, "We'll probably be living poor for a

while until everything gets settled, and even then, we'll still be struggling,"

"I doesn't bother me," she said, "So long as we're together, I'll be happy,"

"I love you," the said in unison.

Together, they embraced and kissed each other for the very first time, a kiss

the both of them had, for many years, yearned to experience. From that moment in

time, they knew they would live a fairy-tale ending life from then onwards,

living happily ever after.

"Asuka," she heard a voice in her head as she kissed the man she loved, "Hey,

wake up. You're choking me,"

She dismissed the voice, never wanting this moment to end and continued to

kiss the man she loved passionately.

Ranma threw a rock at a cat that was sleeping soundly near the entrancing of

the grocery store Logan had directed him to. The rock hit right near the cat,

startling it, sending it running away.

"Fucking cats," Ranma muttered.

Ranma had long gotten over his fear of cats, but it didn't mean he liked them.

Perhaps it was because he associated cats with that fearful portion of his

persona and never wanted to be reminded of it again.

"I should go buy a dog," Ranma said to himself, a dog person, "And not just

any dog, but a dog that eats cats,"

Ranma dismissed the thought as he walked into the grocery store and caught

sight of Cyclops and Asuka near the back and in front of the refrigerated drink

section.

Cyclops was holding Asuka in his arms, his back toward Ranma.

"What the?" Ranma said in surprise when he noticed Cyclops kissing the

unconscious Asuka, "What the hell's he doing?"

Of course, the fact that she had his arms around him and was kissing him and

not the other way around didn't seem to register in Ranma's mind as he seemed to

be seeing exactly what he wanted to see, a married man taking advantage of a

young girl and kissing her while she was unconscious.

He watched from a safe distance as everything played out.

After a few moments, Cyclops seemed to break the kiss, a bit distracted. Ranma

noticed him suspiciously looking around and assumed it was so no one had seen

him steal a kiss from Asuka's lips.

Seeing no one that could identify him to his perverted actions, Cyclops seemed

to turn his attention toward retrieving a few bottled waters from the fridge. He

then carried Asuka and the water toward the front cashier to pay and be on his

way.

Ranma quickly made himself scarce and watched from his hiding place as

Cyclops, blushing a huge shade of red, exited the grocery.

"Yeah, you better be blushing you pervert," Ranma muttered, "You just did

something really perverted,"

Ranma watched as Cyclops gently placed Asuka down in a sitting position on a

nearby bench, him sitting next to her. At that moment, a strong gust of wind

blew by them, lifting Asuka's dress slightly to reveal a slight glimpse of her

panties.

Cyclops really embarrassed when he noticed what had happened, reached out and

quickly fixed Asuka's dress up so nothing was being revealed. Ranma had seen

everything and had believed Cyclops had just done that fix up her dress after

having taken a peek at Asuka's panties.

Ranma narrowed his eyes, a bit angry but not that angry. He couldn't really

say much about that. Afterall, he had stolen Jean's panties so he should let

that slide. It was the fact that he kissed Asuka that angered him.

He watched as Cyclops opened up one of the bottled waters and gently tilted

her head back and make her drink some water. As he did so, some of the water

spilled down her chin and onto her shirt, wetting it slightly.

"Damn, you're worse than me," Ranma muttered in Cyclops' direction as he

watched him used a napkin to dry out the water that fell over her chest area. Of

course, Ranma automatically believed Cyclops did so just to cop a quick feel

while he was at it. As to where the napkin came from, no one knows.

"If he tries anything funny again, I'm gonna really hurt him," Ranma said to

himself.

He watched patiently as Cyclops made Asuka drink a few bottles of water. After

having done so, Asuka seemed to stir a bit before waking up.

"Huh? What? Where am I?" Asuka asked, a bit disoriented. After a moment she

realized she was now awake at that very pleasant dream she had, which was now

slowly disappearing from her memory, had been rudely interrupted.

"Why'd you wake me up?" she nearly shouted toward Cyclops, not even

recognizing him momentarily, feeling that he must have been the one to have

awoken her since she was closest to her.

She narrowed her eyes toward Cyclops as recognition dawned on her, "W-what's

going on here?"

Cyclops was blushing all the while as he said, "Um, you passed out from that

shot of Madripoor Spirits that Logan gave you. You're down the block from the

bar. I gave you some water to get rid of that drunkenness,"

She looked at Cyclops for a moment and then all around her. She looked down at

her chest are and noticed it was a bit wet with water, "Why's my chest wet?"

"Um, before you jump to conclusion, I can explain," Cyclops said, "Some water

dripped down your chin and onto your shirt,"

Asuka seemed skeptic but believed him after a moment.

"So, I passed out?" she asked, "I don't remember what happened. All I remember

was feeling sleepy and putting my head down for a second. A second later, I find

myself waking up outside sitting on a bench sitting next to you,"

"Well, around twenty minutes has passed since you put your head down," Cyclops

said, "I carried you to the grocery store just a short distance away and got you

some bottle water to help get rid of the drunkenness. Madripoor Spirits is

different from real alcohol such that you can get rid of being drunk by actually

drinking water. I don't really know much about how it works and why it works but

it does,"

Asuka rubbed her head, "I don't feel like I have a headache or anything,"

"Yeah, you can't get hangovers from it either," he commented.

"That's kinda cool," she said. She suddenly blushed, "Y-you carried me? While

I was unconscious?"

The only person that ever carried her had been Ranma. How had Cyclops carried

her. Could he had given her piggy-back ride where her breasts were pressing

against his back? Could he had been carrying her in his arms where her breast

would most likely be pressed against his chest?

Cyclops nodded, "Yes. It was only a short distance,"

"Um, okay," she said, dismissing whatever thoughts were going through her

mind. Cyclops was a very respectable person and would never do something like

cop a feel while she was unconscious.

She regarded him for a moment and noticed he was blushing quite a bit, a sure

sign that Logan's comment was right, that Cyclops seemed to have a thing for

her. It made her feel a bit flattered, to be able to make a married man, a man

married to someone as beautiful as Jean Grey, take notice in someone like her.

It made her realize that she's still got it, even on a different world.

What the heck am I thinking, Asuka thought. This is Cyclops, a married man.

Why the heck should I feel flattered? I can't stand people having crushes on me,

especially people I don't know and Cyclops I barely know.

"Um, there's something we must discuss," he said, somewhat nervous. He needed

to tell Asuka to abandon her feelings for him. He was a happily married man.

Stealing his underwear and staring at it, crying out 'I love you' and kissing

him in the grocery store, those were some pretty key indications that she seemed

to have a rather aggressive crush on him.

"Um, yes, there is," she said, feeling like she was doing something wrong to

make Cyclops like her, especially when he was married to Jean. It was clear that

he really liked her, to be blushing so much when around her. All the guys that

liked her tended to blush when near her, most likely stunned by how great a

person she was she believed.

"You go first," Cyclops said, used to being patient to hear things.

"I think your crush on me is wrong," Asuka said, "I mean I'm flattered and

all, but you're a married man,"

"Huh?" was all Cyclops could say, blown away by what he had heard.

Asuka thinks he has a crush on her?

"I see how you look at me and are constantly blushing around me," Asuka said,

"It's really sweet, but I'm sorry, I'm...um...I'm spoken for. Remember what

Ranma said in the hallway? Ranma and I are together and he would definitely not

like that,"

She remembered that incident in the hallway where Ranma had placed his hand

around her and said that she was with him and for Cyclops to stay away from her.

She didn't really know why Ranma had said that, but she believed it was a good

enough incident to have him remember.

Cyclops was at a loss for words.

Asuka got up and looked around. She caught sight of the sign to the bar where

Logan was before and would most likely be now.

"Um, I'm gonna head back to the bar," Asuka got up to her feet, "I'm glad we

cleared this out,"

"Um..." Cyclops tried to call her back before she headed down the street and

disappeared into the bar. Asuka was the type of person, although used to being

confrontational, tended to just avoid silly crushes. This was just like back

when she was on campus back home, where she would dismiss some person's crush

and move on with her business.

Cyclops scratched his head, "What the heck happened here?"

At the moment in time, Ranma decided it was best to approach Cyclops in his

own special way and to teach him a lesson. Stealthily, he snuck up on Cyclops

from behind, tapping him on the shoulder.

Cyclops turned around and caught sight of Ranma's hand just as it closed down

over his face.

"Hiya, Cyclops," Ranma said, his voice cold, "Care to explain to me what you

were doing to Asuka?"

"R-Ranma?" Cyclops found himself being lifted off the ground by his face. His

vision was blocked by the fact that Ranma's hand covered over his eyes and

visor. He had to hold both his hands on Ranma's forearms to keep the intense

pain of being held in that position within a tolerable limit.

"I'll ask you a second time," Ranma said, "How come I saw you kissing Asuka?"

Cyclops, not liking being treated like a rag doll, not even by someone like

Ranma, sneered.

"Let go of me!" Cyclops said, "I'm warning you!"

"What, you're gonna shoot me with that optic beam of yours?" Ranma chuckled,

removing his hand so that he held Cyclops by the neck now, "Go ahead. I won't

bother moving. Hit me with your most powerful shot,"

Cyclops pressed the button around his visor and let loose an extremely

powerful concussive optic blast right into Ranma's chest, surprising the heck

out of him. Ranma's innate AT Field kicked in full force but not well enough to

prevent Ranma from being blown backwards with such force that he ended up

crashing into the wall of a nearby building, crashing through it and ending up

on the inside.

"Is that powerful enough for you?" Cyclops smirked, feeling great. He had

wanted to do that to Ranma for quite a while. Frankly, he had gotten sick of

Ranma and the way he acted.

Ranma laughed as he climbed out of the building, ignoring the shocked crowd

was that gathering about.

"Nice," he smiled, "That caught me completely off-guard. I never ever

suspected you would have the balls to do something like that," He cracked his

knuckles, "This is gonna be fun. Now it's my turn,"

Cyclops didn't move from his spot as Ranma slowly began approaching him. Even

though he felt a great sense of dread about what was to come, he didn't want to

show that he was scared of someone like Ranma, no matter how powerful he was.

Ranma dashed forward, deflecting the only optic blast Cyclops managed to

project in that short span of time. He grabbed him by one of his arms and

twisted it in an awkward angle, bringing Cyclops down to his knees, face down in

the ground, arm cranked behind him facing upward toward the air, his wrist

twisted so it was facing downward toward his back.

"I thought you were a good guy," Ranma said, "Care to explain what I saw back

there in the grocery store? How come you were kissing Asuka while she was

unconscious?"

"I-I was not kissing her!" Cyclops sneered from under the pain. White flashes

of pain was flashing before his eyes.

"It sure looked like you were," Ranma said, cranking his arm back a bit more.

"Ow ow. She was kissing me," Cyclops stated vehemently, "She was having some

kinda weird dream and ended up kissing me,"

Ranma didn't seem to believe him much but lessened the amount of pressure he

administered with his hold.

"I'm happily married, Ranma," Cyclops sneered, "Why would I go after someone

like Asuka,"

"I dunno, maybe it could be because you don't care being considered an

adulterer," Ranma said, cranking the arm back a bit more.

"Well you're wrong," Cyclops sneered, "Go ahead and break my arm if it'll make

you feel better, but you're not going to get me to say something that's untrue,"

"I wouldn't necessarily go that far as to break your arm," Ranma held Cyclops

there for a moment before releasing his hold.

He picked Cyclops up and onto his feet.

"Okay, maybe I jumped to conclusions," Ranma said, dusting some of the dust

from Cyclops' outfit, "People jump to conclusion with me all the time without

letting me explain and I hate it,"

Cyclops rubbed at his shoulder which felt a bit tender. He went about

explaining how he had seen Asuka with his underwear which led him to believe

that she had a thing for him. He then went on to mention that Asuka had said 'I

love you' while he was carrying her, intent on helping her out, minding his own

business, and grabbing him and kissing him.

"Hm, that sounds rather funny," Ranma mentioned.

He remembered catching Asuka trying to steal his underwear once. Of course, it

she had been searching through dresser drawer for the nanban mirror at them but

that fact seemed to have escaped him.

"So you believe me?" Cyclops asked, "I'm a happily married man. All that seems

to have happened was all due to a misunderstanding,"

Ranma smiled, "Yeah, I believe you,"

Cyclops felt relieved, "That's good to hear,"

Ranma grinned.

"Now, what should I do about the fact that you shot me in the chest with that

optic blast of yours?"

"What the?" Jean was surprised to see Ranma enter the bar several minutes

after Asuka came in to join them.

Ranma was carrying an unconscious Cyclops over one shoulder and dropped him

down in one of the empty chairs.

"What happened?" Jean asked.

Ranma smirked, "Wouldn't y'like t'know?"

Jean walked over to her husband and checked him out and noticed he was merely

sleeping.

"Did you hit his sleep pressure points?" she asked, "What for?"

"He looked at me weird," Ranma said, "Is that a good enough reason?"

"How can y'tell?" Logan smirked, "It's not like y'can actually see his eyes,"

Ranma chuckled.

"Really, what happened?" Jean asked.

"He hit me in the chest with one of his optic blasts," Ranma said, "I couldn't

just let it go,"

"What the heck did you do?" Asuka asked, "You probably deserved it,"

Ranma was surprised to hear that, "What? What makes you think I did something

wrong. I was the one that got hit in the chest,"

"It's probably because you did something to provoke him," she stated.

Ranma was about to argue but stopped. Now that he thought about it, he did

provoke that attack, didn't he? He had been the one that grabbed Cyclops and

egged him on to actually attack him.

"Um," Ranma tried to think of something to say.

"So I'm right, it is your fault," Asuka said.

Ranma narrowed his eyes at Asuka, a bit annoyed that she was right. She had no

idea of what had happened, but just the fact that she knew him well enough to

know that he was in the wrong annoyed him.

After a moment, he sighed, "I guess you have a point. I'll wake him up,"

"Is there really a need right away?" Logan suggested, "It's nice not having

him awake nagging like he usually does,"

"Yeah, he kinda nags like a girl, doesn't he?" Ranma chuckled.

Asuka and Jean looked at Ranma, not liking that rather sexist comment he made.

"What?" Ranma acted innocent.

"How long is he going to be out?" Jean asked Ranma's back as they trekked

through the woods.

She couldn't help but feel very angry toward Ranma seemingly having his way

and she unable to do anything about it. This was her husband that he was

treating like some useless rag doll.

"Long enough," Ranma smirked, "Don't worry, I'm carrying him and all. He's

just asleep. There's no harm being done,"

"What do you think happened between them?" Jean turned toward Asuka.

"Um, I dunno," Asuka answered, feeling a bit embarrassed. Jean had no idea

that her husband had a crush on someone else.

Jean regarded Asuka for a comment, wondering what was on the young girl's

mind. It looked like something was bothering and she had contemplated using her

telepathy to find out what. But the again, that would be an invasion of privacy.

The group made their way through the woods and to the airstrip where the

Blackbird was. It was right where they had left it. As they approached the

plane, the rest of the group emerged to greet them.

"How did everything go?" Beast ask. When he noticed Cyclops slumped over

Ranma's shoulder, he asked, "What happened to Cyclops?"

"He's dead," Ranma said bluntly.

"What?" Beat and several team members said in shock.

"He's fine," Jean said, annoyed at Ranma, "Seems like he and Cyclops got in a

bit of an argument and Ranma decided to just end the argument in his usually

manner,"

"Argument over what?" Beast asked.

"Nothing much," Ranma didn't really care to explain. Him thinking Cyclops

liking Asuka had been resolved and he didn't feel like explaining what Cyclops

had said to him. That was now water under the bridge, hopefully.

Beast seemed very curious as to what happened but didn't bother to press the

matter.

"Did you guy find any adamantium?" Psylocke asked, glad to see everyone was

all right.

"No," Jean said.

She went on to explain the details of what had happened, about how they had

discovered its location only to find out too late that the adamantium had been

moved a few hours before their arrival, as a precaution to prevent it from being

stolen much like before.

"So we're back and square one?" Rogue asked, feeling a bit annoyed. She didn't

like waiting around and felt like all of that had been useless now that it

seemed like the group came back empty-handed.

"Unfortunately, yes," Jean said, turning toward Beast, "Do you think there's

any other place where we can find some adamantium?"

Beast scratched his chin, "I can't look around after we get back to the

school. I need my computer,"

Ranma said, "Nah, there's no need,"

Everyone turned toward Ranma.

"I think this is where we part," Ranma said.

"What?" Psylocke asked first, "You're leaving?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "There's no need for you guys to help us out anymore. You

guys are all bending backwards to help us out. It's more than we could've

ever've expected,"

"What do you plan on doing?" Jean asked.

Ranma shrugged, "Dunno, but we'll figure things out,"

"Um, what about your stuff?" Jean asked, "Don't you still have your stuff at

the school?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Ranma gave a shy smile, "Hm, it looks like we'll be with

you guys for a little bit longer, until after we get our stuff,"

"What do you plan on doing?" Asuka asked, "After we get back to school and get

our stuff?"

She didn't really know what to think. She kind of liked hanging out with the

X-Men and was starting to get used to being around them. But then again, she was

pretty sure that if she expressed not wanting to leave, Ranma would simply leave

her at the school and go about with his own business and come back and pick her

up afterwards. It was odd. She wanted to stay but she didn't want to be away

from Ranma.

"Don't really know," Ranma scratched his head, "I'll think of something. Maybe

I can do something like taking the president of the United States hostage and

tell them that I'll kill him unless they give me adamantium,"

Asuka was silent as Ranma chuckled.

The X-Men members stared at Ranma, shocked at the comment.

"What?" Ranma asked, "You think something like that won't work?"

"That's not even funny," Psylocke commented.

"I wasn't trying t'be funny," Ranma stated seriously, "Something like that's

sure to work. And since we'll be heading home afterwards, it doesn't really

matter if the government would be after us since we won't be around,"

Beast said, "You do know that if you do something like that, the government

would view you as a mutant to be able to do something like that. Doing something

like that would look so bad for the mutant species it's not even funny,"

"Really?" Ranma asked, "I never realized that,"

"You can single-handedly start a war between mutants and humans if you pull a

stunt like that," Jean said, "Do you really want to start something like that?"

Ranma shrugged, "Well, we'll be going back home to our world, so technically,

it really doesn't matter much since we won't be around to see exactly what

happens,"

No one said a word.

"Look, it's already evident that you can pretty much do whatever you want,"

Jean said, "But if you're really a 'good guy' as you claim to be, then you

wouldn't do something like that. Do you realize what kind of predicament you're

putting us in?"

"You've got a point, I don't wanna start something like that," Ranma sighed,

"Damn, why does everything hafta be so hard and complicated?"

Everyone felt a bit relieved. Ranma was a good person and would never want

something like that to happen. Although he seemed to see everything in shades of

gray, he seemed to see things in a whiter shade of gray than a darker one.

"Look, we'll help you out," Beast said, "Just try and be patient. We can and

will be able to help you with something like this,"

"You guys don't need to," Ranma said, "I don't even see why you're going

through such lengths to help us out. Keep in mind we are interested in getting

the adamantium to build an engine. That's it. We're not here to get it to build

some weapon to defeat this superior being attacking our world. The engine we

wanna make is purely for leisure,"

The cabin became silent. Everyone there knew that. During the time Ranma and

the others had gone to the Embassy, everyone else that stayed behind had a

chance to converse and discuss Ranma's recent appearance and came upon a

realization.

"We want to help you," Beast said, speaking on behalf of everyone, "You've

actually helped us out more than we you. This is the least we could do,"

Getting rid of Apocalypse was a big thing and they knew that. Whatever

Apocalypse had been up to was most likely something terrible. Ranma being there

and getting rid of him probably meant a future battle the X-Men would have

against him. As much as they felt bad admitting it, Ranma had did them a huge

favor by getting rid of him before he could have done anything.

"If you just wait around, I'm sure we can find a way to help out," Beast said.

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever,"

"So you're willing to stay with us for a bit longer?" Jean asked.

"Fine," he said, "But just a bit longer,"

new stuff 7/31

The blackbird landed in the underground hanger bay sometime in the evening.

The trip back home had been that long but the group still felt a bit weary from

having ridden for so long.

"I must say, that was quite a trip," Spider-Man commented as he exited the

Blackbird, "We've got do that again,"

"Don't count on it," Logan smirked, "It's not like we can't handle things on

our own,"

Ranma smirked, "Dunno about that. If Spider-Man weren't there, you guys

would've been sitting ducks when that second wave of soldiers rushed toward the

church during the auction. Keep in mind that you and everyone else didn't have

their powers because of those suppressors those soldiers were wearing. Spider-

Man was the only person around that was able to keep them at bay and buy me the

time I needed to figure out how to deal with the situation at hand,"

Even though Spider-Man was wearing a mask, Logan knew he was grinning

underneath.

"Thanks for your help," Ranma said with a grin to Spider-Man, "I'll be sure to

swing by your neighborhood and say goodbye before I leave,"

"Swing by my neighborhood?" Spider-Man laughed, "I like the play in words.

That's very punny,"

Ranma fell to the floor.

"Too bad things didn't turn out okay," Spider-Man said, referring to the

vibranium that had been stolen regardless of their intervention, "But look on

the bright side, you happened to have defeated Apocalypse in the process. Every

cloud has its silver line,"

Ranma shrugged, "I guess,"

Everyone headed for the elevators. When they reached the first floor, they all

went their separate ways, wanting to relax after a long mission. Most of the

group headed for their respective rooms, eager to fetch their clothes so they

can take a nice long shower. Spider-Man left the school to head home. Afterall,

he had never told her where he was going and hadn't been home since last night.

Cyclops was now awake, a bit angry toward Ranma, not that Ranma really cared,

and retired to his bedroom as well to get some clothes as well to take a shower.

Asuka's stomach rumbled.

"Seems like you're hungry," Ranma smiled warmly, "Wanna go out and get some

food?"

"I guess," she said, "It's getting a bit late though,"

"It's only ten-thirty," Ranma stated, "I'm sure there are some restaurants

that are opened real late,"

"Well, we can always go to New York City if y'want," Ranma said, "That city

never sleeps, right? Is that how the saying goes? I'm sure we can find something

to eat while there,"

Asuka said, "That sounds good, but I'd like to take a shower first,"

"Sure," Ranma said, "Hey, if you want, we can go ask Spider-Man where to go. I

remember he mentioned about there being good places to eat,"

"That sounds like a good idea," Asuka said.

"Okay, you go take a shower while I go get Spider-Man before he leaves the

school," Ranma quickly headed down the hall.

Ranma quickly headed out of the school, dashing to the front gate, looking

back and forth. He noticed no one walking about that looked like Spider-Man. He

wondered if Spider-Man had taken a cab or something.

He laughed, "Right, that's a sight, Spider-Man taking a cab. I'm sure a cab

driver would pull up and pick up a dude wearing a red spider-suit,"

He scratched his head, wondering where Spider-Man could've gone.

"Ah, he must have changed out of his costume to take a cab," Ranma believed.

Looking around, he saw a few people walking about.

Spotting a man that looked to be around Spider-Man's size walking away the

school, Ranma quickly approached the man.

"Hiya, Spider-Man," Ranma smiled, "So this is your secret identity, huh?"

"Huh?" the man looked at Ranma confused.

"Um, nevermind," Ranma realized that that man was not the person he was

looking for.

He looked around some more for someone that looked to be the same general

body-size as Spider-Man. After he spotted a person, he quickly ran up to him.

"Hiya, Spider-Man," Ranma smiled, "So this is your secret identity, huh?"

"Excuse me?" the man looked confused.

"Nevermind," Ranma said, heading off toward another random person.

"Hiya, Spider-Man," Ranma smiled, "So this is your secret identity, huh?"

"H-how'd you find me?" the man's eyes widened.

Ranma burst out laughing, "So it is you! You just gave yourself away,"

He regarded the man that was Spider-Man for a moment. He looked to be in his

early thirties and had short brown hair. There were nothing about him that stood

out. Aside from his special powers, there wre no real distinguishing

characteristics about him. He looked very much like an average person.

"Wow, Spider-Man, you're pretty amazing," Ranma said, "I would never've

guessed you were Spider-Man if we met under different circumstance,"

"Peter," Spider-Man said.

"Huh?" Ranma asked.

"Call me Peter," Spider-Man said, looking around nervously, "Peter Parker.

That's my name,"

"Um, okay," Ranma shrugged, "Peter is is,"

Peter sighed in relief, glad no one was around to see them exchanging words.

Ranma smiled, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I won't tell anyone. I

promise,"

"How'd you find me?" Peter asked, "I know I didn't leave any trail behind that

would lead you to me,"

"I know," Ranma said, "There were no clues. I just assumed you would most

likely revert to your secret identity since the school isn't all that close to

New York City and I doubt you'd be able to get a cab wearing that spider-outfit

of yours,"

He scratched his head, "Of course, what really confuses me is exactly where

you got your regular clothes,"

"So what you're saying is that you had no idea I was him but my reaction gave

it away?" Peter asked.

Ranma grinned, "Yep. Pretty funny, huh?"

"Oh my God," Peter said, slapped his forehead, "I feel like more idiotic than

those pre-movie-theater Fandango commercials,"

"Huh?" Ranma asked.

"You know, those idiotic Fandango commercials that always show right before a

movie starts when you're at the theatres," Peter stated.

"Whatever," Ranma shrugged, "I have no idea what you're talking about and I

don't watch movies,"

"How come you were looking for me?" Peter asked.

Ranma said, "I just wanted to ask you if there were any good places to eat in

New York City. You mentioned before that you have several places you could

recommend when I met you when I was with Psylocke,"

"Oh, that. I know plenty of places," Peter said confidently, "It depends on

what kind of food you're interested in eating,"

Ranma thought about it for a moment, "Hm, okay, how about a good Japanese

restaurant? I miss eating meals from my native country,"

Peter started listing off random names of great Japanese restaurants. Ranma

decided to choose one from the list at random. Peter happily gave him the

location where it could be found relative to Times Square, a place Ranma was

familiar with.

"Thanks," Ranma smiled, turning around to head back to the school.

"Um, Ranma, you promise you won't-" Peter began.

He nodded, "I promise. I won't tell anyone,"

"Thanks," Peter said.

Ranma regarded Peter for a moment and said, "Hey, if you wait around, I'll

bring you to New York City. It'll help save you on cab fare,"

"No, it's okay," Peter said, "Thanks anyway,"

"You sure?" Ranma asked, "I'll be flying. I don't mind,"

"I'll be fine," Peter said.

"Okay, suit yourself," Ranma shrugged.

"Well, I assume you're taking Psylocke back out on a date again?" Peter

smirked, "You move kinda quick to be having a second date, huh?"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Peter. Was Peter being some kind of wise-ass

because he sure didn't like it.

"You two make a good couple, really," Peter said honestly.

"Hey! Does anyone wanna know who this guy's secret identity is?" Ranma shouted

loudly in annoyance for everyone to hear, pointing toward Peter, "It rhymes with

Spider-Man!"

"W-what did I say?"

Ranma and Asuka smiled as their meal was served.

They hadn't eaten Japanese food in a while and they missed it. Ranma even

enjoyed indulging in some Japanese conversation with the waitress, removing his

headset device in the process. After a few minutes of talking, Asuka started

getting angry at how well the two of them seemed to converse and interrupted

them to remind Ranma that they were there to eat.

"So, what do you thinks gonna happen next?" Ranma asked, "You think Beast will

find a way for us to get the adamantium we're looking for?"

Asuka nodded, "I assume so. He's a really smart person and I'm sure he can

think of something,"

Ranma smiled, "He reminds me a bit of Ritsuko. Really smart and able to figure

things out better and faster than everyone else,"

The two of them indulged in warm conversation, talking about nothing in

general.

"Cyclops has a thing for me," Asuka said from out of the blue, wondering if

Ranma would be jealous. She hoped he would.

"Really?" Ranma asked, "Y-you don't like him do you? I'm gonna kill him if he

trying to seduce you. You belong to no one but me,"

Asuka found Ranma's joking manner annoying.

Ranma leaned back in his seat and stretched, "I had a talk with Cyclops back

in Madripoor. It seems like things got a bit outta hand,"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Asuka asked.

"Didja know Cyclops actually thinks you have a thing for him?" Ranma smirked.

"What? No way! Get out of here!" Asuka said, blushing, "I-I don't like him,

Ranma. Really. I don't know why he would ever get that kind of idea,"

"No need to get defensive," Ranma said, "I'm just explaining it as it is,"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Ranma said, "Cyclops thinks you have some kind of underwear fetish when he saw

you looking on his underwear,"

"W-what?" Asuka gasped.

Ranma went on to explain everything and his deduction on how everything lead

to what it did. He explained how he had needed a pair of clothes and had

borrowed some from Cyclops and how Jean happened to give him a pair of Cyclops'

underwear as well. Him leaving the underwear lying around in the room for Asuka

to pick up curious, and at the same time Cyclops looked into the room, was what

lead to the misunderstanding.

"Seems like Cyclops isn't used to dealing with stuff like this," Ranma

chuckled, "As the leader of the X-Men, how would YOU react if you believe a girl

was stealing your underwear? That's why he was constantly blushing around you,

because he was nervous and embarrassed and such,"

"H-he thinks I'm some kinda underwear thief? Oh my god!" Asuka blushed a

horrible shade of red.

"I guess it's understandable, you do seem to have this weird thing with guys'

underwear," Ranma chuckled, "Like when I caught you stealing my underwear back

then,"

"I was looking for the nanban mirror!" Asuka said in anger.

"Sure," Ranma smirked.

Ranma laughed for a bit as Asuka told him to go self-procreate. After a

moment, he continued to explain everything, about how she had actually kissed

Cyclops while she was out drunk which seemed to have further made him believe

she had a thing for him. Asuka naturally didn't believe him, already having

forgotten the dream since dreams could rarely ever be recalled. However, she did

have doubts as to whether or not she really did so such a thing. Several times

she recalled waking up actually hugging her pillow and even kissing it, most

likely a result of some weird dream she had of her and someone she was

hopelessly in love with but could not recall whom.

"All in all, it seems like everything's one huge misunderstanding," Ranma

said.

Asuka felt mortified.

"Don't worry, it it's no one's fault," Ranma smiled warmly, "Misunderstanding

like that always happen back when I was young. Frankly, it's kinda funny seeing

it actually happen to someone else other than myself,"

"Well I don't find it funny," Asuka said.

Ranma laughed.

"Man, I gotta go apologize to Cyclops," Asuka said, "I didn't realize it had

all been a misunderstanding,"

"Heh, apologizing should help ease the awkward tension between you two, yeah,"

Ranma and Asuka walked up to the front entrance to the school sometime around

midnight. Their meal had gone by uneventful and the two of them had decided to

call it a day.

"Hm, seems like we're locked out," Ranma commented, realizing the door

wouldn't open. He gave it a quick tug and ended up accidentally pulling the door

off its hinges, "Oh oh,"

"Um, you're supposed to push, not pull," Asuka said, pinching the bridge of

her nose.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "I guess it's too late now, huh?"

Asuka felt like she was getting a headache. How could Ranma be so stupid?

At that moment, Logan happened to be walking down the corridor, done with a

strenuous training session in the Danger Room. He noticed the broken door and

Ranma holding it through the opening.

"What happened here?" Logan asked.

"Um, I dunno," Ranma feigned innocence, "I found it like this. I just pushed

it and it suddenly broke,"

Logan scratched his head, a bit confused. He shrugged and continued walking,

"You should go tell Psylocke about it. She usually takes care of miscellaneous

like maintenance,"

"She does maintenance?" he asked, "I thought she just hangs around and lives

here or something,"

Logan smirked, "What, you think we're freeloaders or something? You're wrong.

Everyone one of us, when we're not out doing a mission, are doing other jobs

around here. We oversee 'em in biweekly rotations,"

"What do you do around here?" Ranma asked.

"None of yer business," Logan muttered, "Let's just say that if I find the

person that overflowed that toilets in one of the men's restroom, he's a dead

man,"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Um, good luck finding him,"

"If yer goin' t'talk to Psylocke, her room's down the hall and on yer left,"

Logan jerked a thumb over his back, "She's still awake. I saw her walkin' the

halls jus' a few minutes ago. You can tell her of the problem with the door and

she will most likely get it fixed up t'morrow,"

"Okay," Ranma said, heading down the hall, "Thanks,"

"I'll come with you," Asuka followed closely behind.

"Okay," he didn't seem to mind one bit.

She yawned as she walked along side him.

"Maybe you should go get some sleep," Ranma suggested, "You've been up since

went to the auction. That was a while ago,"

"I guess you're right," she turned around and headed for her room.

Psylocke was brushing her long mane of hair as she sat in front of the mirror

when she heard a knock at her door. She was clad in a rather revealing almost

transparent negligee.

"C'min," she said, not bothering to look toward the door.

She heard the door open. Despite that she was clad in a rather revealing

outfit, the front of her outfit coming down low to reveal quite a bit of

cleavage, she was confident about her body and had nothing to be ashamed of.

"You busy?" she recognized Ranma's voice. Hearing his voice suddenly brought

back memories of those pleasurable sensations she had felt during the time when

he had snapped her back and such.

She turned didn't dare turn around in her chair to face him, "That depends. I

was about to head off to sleep,"

"Man, I can see right through that outfit," Ranma commented, "Because of the

way the moonlight's shining in, it sure don't leave much to the imagination,"

Psylocke smiled, "And do you like what you see?"

Ranma cleared his throat, wanting to change the subject, "Just curious, why do

all girls do that? Brushing their hair before they go to sleep? I mean it's

gonna get messed up anyway,"

"Is that what you wanted to ask me?" she asked.

Ranma shook his head, "Actually, no. Logan mentioned that I should tell you

about what happened to the front door,"

"Why, what happened?" she asked.

"It's broken," Ranma said.

"Don't worry about it, I'll get it fixed in the morning," she said.

"Um, actually, I'd like to fix it," Ranma give a chuckle, "I feel like it was

my fault,"

She turned around and narrowed her eyes, "Was it?"

"Me? No way," Ranma grinned, "What makes you think I'd be at fault,"

Psylocke didn't seem convinced.

"Can ya just tell me were I can find a hardware store?" he asked, "I'll just

go pick up the necessary stuff to have it fixed,"

She regarded Ranma a moment via the reflection in the mirror for a moment.

"Don't worry, I'll come with you tomorrow to get the stuff," she said, "I need

to go to town anyway to get some stuff,"

"Like what, tampons?" he asked innocently.

Psylocke narrowed her eyes.

"I'm gonna pretend I didn't here you say that," she said in annoyance.

"What time do you usually wake up?" he asked, "I'll come getcha whenever

y'wake up so we can go get the stuff,"

She said, "I wake up early, around five, usually to go jogging,"

Ranma was surprised to hear that, "You go jogging?"

"Of course, a girl's gotta keep her girlish figure somehow," she stated.

"What for, y'look fine," Ranma said.

"Thanks," she felt flattered at the comment, giving him a rather sexy smile.

"I haven't jogged in a while," he said, "I usually wake up around the same

time as you. I'll go jogging with ya if y'don't mind. I usually jog around

twenty miles,"

Psylocke said, "Twenty miles? I don't jog quite that much. Usually around ten.

And I don't mind if you jog with me,"

"Okay," Ranma said, turning around to leave, "I'll see ya early in the

morning,"

The knocked on Psylocke's door early in the morning at around five.

Psylocke opened the door right away, having been actually waiting for him.

He regarded her for a moment. Psylocke was clad in a tight outfit consisting

of a pair of shorts and a tank top that was also a sports bra, her flat stomach

revealed for all to see.

"You ready?" he asked.

Psylocke nodded, a bit surprised that he didn't bother to compliment her on

how good she looked. Most guys she usually encountered during her jogs did.

She regarded him for a moment and noticed he was wearing the exact same outfit

he was wearing yesterday but said nothing about it. It seemed odd that he

wouldn't bother changing into a different outfit for jogging in the very least.

Together, the headed out the front door. Actually, they headed out through the

front opening where the broken door was.

"It looks like someone tried pull the door open when they were supposed to

just push it open instead," Psylocke commented, noticing the way the hinges were

splintered with wood.

"Gee, I wonder who could've done that," Ranma gave a shy smile.

"Gee, I wonder," Psylocke was pretty sure Ranma must've done that.

Once outside, Ranma started stretching his legs, showing off flexibility that

rivaled Spider-Man's own flexibility. Doing a perfect split seemed perfectly

natural to him.

"Seems like martial arts made you really flexible," Psylocke commented.

"Thanks," he said, actually considering it a compliment.

After a minute of stretching, he turned toward her as she seemed to stretch as

well.

"You ready?" he asked, "Lead the way. I'll keep close,"

"Okay," she smiled

Together, the headed for the gate and headed down the block.

Ranma and Psylocke sat by a table in located in front of a yogurt shop.

They were now around five miles away from the school. Ranma had discovered

that Psylocke jogged to this shop every morning where she would stop to order a

health shake and drink it and then jog back home.

"What'd be funny is if we stop at some fast food place or something," Ranma

chuckled, "That way, it'd seem like you would jog all the way here, so you can

burn off just enough calories along the way and back to enjoy a burger,"

Psylocke giggled, "Not quite. I order the same thing all the time, a health

shake. I use the five minutes it takes to order and finish it as a resting

period before heading back,"

"Is that health shake any good?" Ranma asked, "It sounds like it takes

disgusting. Anything with the word 'health' in it probably tastes disgusting,"

"Not at all," she said, handing him her drink, "Take a sip,"

Ranma took a sip, before handing it back to her, "Hm, not bad,"

Psylocke looked at the straw.

"Yeah yeah, an indirect kiss," Ranma shrugged, "So what? I don't care. If I

did, I would probably be self-conscious about drinking out of the carton back

home. But since I'm not, it seems like something like that doesn't bother me.

Does it bother you?"

Psylocke sipped at her drink, "No, not at all,"

Ranma glanced over Psylocke's shoulder where he saw a very beautiful woman

jogging down the sidewalk across the street from where they were. The woman

reminded him very much of Jen, that Vice-President chick he met in some diner.

She had been the woman that claimed she had been waiting for her boyfriend, a

mere ruse to make people believe she was spoken for and that they should go hit

on someone else.

Psylocke followed his gaze and noticed the woman. For some odd reason, she

suddenly felt angry, as if jealous. She found it rather odd because it wasn't as

if she and Ranma were a couple or anything.

"You think she's pretty?" Psylocke asked from out of the blue, curiosity

getting the better of her. It also made her wonder how Ranma would respond to

something like that. Men hated that question and no man seemed to know a real

answer to that kind of question.

After a moment, realizing that that woman was not the one he had met then,

Ranma turned his attention toward Psylocke.

"I'm sorry, but what was that?" he asked, "I was distracted staring at the

woman for a moment. What did you say?"

"Nevermind," Psylocke said in annoyance.

Ranma entered the War Room, expecting to find Beast there. To his expectation,

he was there and sitting in front of the computer. It was only around eight in

the morning.

"Morning," Ranma smiled.

"Good morning," Beast said, intent on looking at the computer monitor, "So,

you get around to fixing the front door your broke yet?"

"How'd you know?" Ranma asked.

Beast chuckled, "I figured it was you. Your reaction just confirms it,"

Ranma laughed.

"I was up this morning and saw the door just broken and lying on the side,"

Beast said, "I checked out the hinges and noticed, by the way they were broken,

it looked like someone made a mistake of opening the door wrong. You're the only

one here, um, capable of making a mistake like that,"

"Dontcha mean to say 'stupid' enough?" Ranma grinned.

"You said it, not I," Beast chuckled.

"I just finished it before coming down here," he jerked a thumb over his

shoulder, "Psylocke, even though she seems pissed at me for some reason, helped

me out,"

"She's angry at you? For what? What did you do this time?" Beast asked.

Ranma smirked, "Great, you're just like everyone else. Everyone seems to think

that it's generally my fault if someone gets angry at me,"

Beast laughed. Ranma laughed with him.

Of all the people that he came in contact with ever since he got here, Ranma

got along with Beast the best.

"So, how can I help you?" Beast asked.

"I was just curious-" Ranma began.

"The adamantium and if I've found out of its whereabouts?" Beast finished for

him.

Ranma nodded.

Beast gestured toward the screen, "Well, I've found a few places that would

have it, but they're all United States government-run facilities. There's a good

chance they've all been moved to secret locations much like the one in

Madripoor. The problem is that the government is being extremely secretive about

where the relocated adamantium has been sent. I've been hard at work trying to

find out the locations via computer but it's no use,"

"Well, that doesn't exclude that someone at the facilities would know," Ranma

said, "Just because you can't find the info through computers doesn't mean you

can't just ask someone. We could always attack the facilities and interrogate

some of the people there. I'm sure someone would know,"

"Perhaps," Beast said, "Actually, I'm pretty sure that would work with at

least some of the facilities. Of course, there are better ways. We don't know if

there's a chance that the facility would be like the one in Madripoor, where no

one would know. You'd basically be going on a hit-or-miss approach attacking

every facility hoping that that's the one that would have the person or persons

that would know where the adamantium had been moved to,"

Ranma smiled, "But that doesn't mean that the very first facility we attack

might not have the person that would know,"

Beast nodded, pressing a button to display a list of names, "I understand. I

figured you would say that. That's why I checked out and listed all the possible

facilities that might have someone that knows, starting with the one with the

most amount of employees. That way, with the more people working at a particular

facility, the hire the chances that someone there would know,"

Ranma smiled, "Man, you really know how to think ahead. You and Ritsuko would

be awesome working together. You two would probably be able to solve any kinda

problem that comes your way,"

"Ritsuko?" he asked.

"She's really smart. Heck, she's a scientist much like yourself," Ranma

commented, "I know her pretty well and it's really amazing how much you two

think alike. Y'know how X-Men is a team that have people that have specialties

in certain areas? It's similar to the group I'm with back home. They all have

their specialties. Ritsuko's is, by far, acquiring information and making heads

or tails of it,"

Beast smirked, his interest piqued, "Really? She sounds like a very

interesting person. I wouldn't mind meeting her one day,"

Ranma shrugged, "Well, if you're interested, you're welcome to come back with

me to my world. Heck, bring the whole crew if y'like. I don't really care. You

guys'll hafta find your own place to crash because my house has quite a bit of

people living in there already,"

"Hm, I might take you up on your offer," Beast smiled.

"You mentioned that there is an easier way," Ranma said, "What other way is

there?"

Beast pressed a button again to reveal a map of Antarctica, "Here's where

Melroy is, the base that's located in Antarctica. It was the base that was

attacked recently,"

"Where's Melroy?" Ranma looked at the screen.

Beat pointed toward the monitor, "Over here,"

"Here?" Ranma touched the screen.

"Why'd you go an do that?" Beast said, a bit annoyed.

"Huh?" Ranma asked, confused.

"You touched the monitor," Beast said, "You should never touch the monitor. If

you're going to point to something on the monitor, have your finger hover just

above the glass,"

He got up and walked over to a table where some paper towels were and brought

it back, rubbing the smudge left on the monitor from when Ranma touched it.

"It's just a monitor," Ranma said.

"If you like computers, you'll understand why I don't like people touching the

screen," Beast stated.

Ranma shrugged, "Okay,"

He suddenly recalled something. Magneto had mentioned the coordinates to where

his base was.

"Hey, do you know where a certain coordinates on a map is?" he asked.

Beast nodded.

Ranma stated the coordinates. Beast checked the map for a second. He didn't

even bother to switch maps on the screen, pointing to a location on the map of

Antarctica.

"That's right here," Beast said, "How come you ask?"

"Just curious," Ranma said, "Anyway. Go on. Back to Melroy,"

"Where was I? Oh yeah. All the damage that had occurred to the base has

already been fixed and it's already restarted its mining process," Beast said,

"We can get the vibranium there. I know you're interested in adamantium, but

vibranium is a key component we need to make it and the process of making

adamantium is fairly easy so whether we get adamantium or vibranium is trivial,"

"Wait, you mean the vibranium can be found in the same place where it was

stolen from?" Ranma was confused.

Beast nodded, "Melroy is a mining facility. All the vibranium stolen from

there was of what was mined out. There's still vibranium in the earth that can

to be mined out,"

"Oh, I get it," Ranma said, "All the vibranium that had been mined had been

stolen. The vibranium in the area hadn't been stolen...or mined out yet to be

stolen,"

Beast nodded.

Ranma smirked, "So lemme guess, we wait for enough vibranium to be mined out,

and then hit the base and steal it?"

Beast said, "More or less. Even though what we would be doing basically goes

against why the X-Men exist in the first place, it's better doing something like

this than your approach, to take the president hostage and such,"

Ranma laughed, "Man, I kinda feel sorry. That Melroy base will be attacked

twice,"

"I guess it can't be helped," Beast said, "It's probably the best course of

action for us to take at this point in time. Of course, the problem is that I'm

sure the government would now be extra cautious of a second attack and will most

likely have that place much more guarded than before it had been attacked in the

first place, specifically to prevent a second attack,"

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Ah, that's no worry. I can deal with that,"

"The way you can so easily dismiss the kind of resistance to be expected is

kind of amusing," Beast smirked, "You're really not worried about that, are

you?"

"Not one bit," Ranma said.

Beast shrugged, "Then again, I guess we shouldn't worry about it anyway. You

DID take on people like Juggernaut and Magneto and Apocalypse. Something like

this would be a walk in the park for you compared to dealing with people like

those three,"

"They're really formidable guys, huh?" Ranma asked.

Beast nodded, "Quite. Of course, just the thought that you took on those

particular three, without even us knowing that you did, and we were only a short

distance away from you at the time, I still find mind boggling,"

Ranma shrugged, "I've dealt with strong opponents before in my life. They're

no different. Wait until you hafta deal with what I call 'The Angry Mob', now

THAT'S scary,"

"'The Angry Mob'?" Beast asked.

"It's a group of girls that carry weird stuff like sticks and rakes and such,"

Ranma said, "As a regular mob of girls, they're easy to deal with. But when

they're angry at you for doing something that they think is perverted, thus

becoming 'The Angry Mob', that's a whole 'nother story,"

Beast seemed at a loss of words, "You're kidding me, right?"

"I shit you not," Ranma said.

"Um, I'll take your word for it," Beast said, nervously.

"So, when can we go get the vibranium?" Ranma asked, "I'm getting a bit

impatient about getting the adamantium,"

Beast said, "In a day or two. Keep in mind that the mining was restarted only

a short time ago. I checked into its average mining output and did some

calculations and believe that by the end of tomorrow, the amount of vibranium

you need will have been mined out. I'm pretty sure the amount will be mined out

sooner, but I took into account that the mining would a bit slower since the

facility will need time to get back to speed. I think it's better to be safe

than sorry and attack the facility when we know for sure it'll have the amount

you need instead of the amount we assume it will have. Basically, if we leave

tomorrow night for Antarctica, that'll the best time to strike,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Tomorrow night, huh? I dunno. I was kinda hoping we

can get it today,"

"I can look around some more on my computer," Beast said, "I've been at it all

night so I'm pretty used to knowing what to look for. I can probably find

something before long,"

"You've been at it all night?" Ranma's eyes widened.

Beast nodded.

Ranma said, "Oh, forget it then. You've already done more than enough. I don't

want you doing more work than necessary. I already owe you my gratitude to

helping me out this much already,"

"It's no problem," Beast smiled.

Ranma shook his head, "Don't worry about it. I have no problem with waiting to

tomorrow night. Considering how much work you did already to help me out, that's

just wrong of me to be selfish and make you work even more just to satisfy my

impatience,"

"Are you sure?" Beast said.

Ranma nodded, "I'm sure,"

"Okay," Beast said.

"Tomorrow night it is, then," Ranma said.

"Right," Beast agreed, "We can tell everyone of the plan,"

"Thanks, you're really helpful," Ranma smiled, "You definitely reminded me of

Ritsuko I mentioned earlier. She's one of the most helpful people I know,"

"Um, this Ritsuko person..." Beast began, glad the subject actually changed

onto her, the question on his mind. He wondered if it was wrong to ask such a

question.

Ranma chuckled, "I already know what you're gonna ask. And the answer is,

'Yes, she's hot',"

Beast and Ranma chuckled.

At that moment, Rogue entered the War Room, wanting to have a go at the Danger

Room if no one was using it at the moment. When she noticed Ranma and Beast

laughing, she approached them.

"What's so funny?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing much, just guy-stuff," Ranma chuckled, "Y'wouldn't understand,"

Rogue narrowed her eyes, "Wha' makes y'think that?"

Ranma grinned, "Okay. I'll test ya. If you're a guy, and I mention a girl's

name, what's one of the first questions you ask?"

She thought for a moment before saying, "Ah dunno. 'What does she look

like?',"

"No, you ask 'Is she hot?'," Ranma said.

"Huh?" Rogue was confused, "How's that any diff'rent form what Ah said?"

"Told ya. Guy-stuff. You wouldn't understand," Ranma laughed.

Beast snickered but didn't want to laugh outright.

"Another one. When do guys consider clothes 'dirty'?" Ranma asked.

"Ah dunno, when they're dirty perhaps?" she asked, finding the question rather

idiotic. Why was she even answering these questions?

"No, when they're smelly," Ranma answered, "Clothes are clean until they

smell, then it's considered dirty,"

"That's just gross," Rogue commented.

"No, that's guy-stuff," Ranma answered, "Y'wouldn't understand,"

At that moment, Logan entered the room.

Ranma turned toward him, "Hey, Logan, I think your clothes are 'dirty',"

Logan looked down at his outfit and sniffed it.

Ranma and Beast burst out laughing.

"See, told ya," Ranma smiled at Rogue, "Guy-stuff,"

Rogue let out an annoyed breath and headed for the door to the Danger Room,

"Ah'll be in the Danger Room if anyone needs me. That's jus' sick,"

"Have you seen Ranma? Is he in the War Room or Danger Room?" Asuka asked Rogue

as they happened to pass each other in the hallway.

It was a little after nine and Asuka had gotten up after a good night's sleep

and was eager to go get some breakfast with Ranma. Rogue was the first person

she saw in the hallways.

Rogue, finished with her workout in the Danger Room had been on her way to her

room to get some clean clothes to take a shower.

"Yeah, darlin', Ah saw him down in the War Room yuckin' it up with Beast and

Logan on some weird guy-stuff," Rogue said.

"Guy-stuff? Oh, that," Asuka said, shrugged, "Ranma's probably the cause of

it. He does it all the time,"

Rogue looked at the young girl curiously, "Oh?"

"Some weird testosterone pissing contest thing," she stated.

"P-pissing contest? In the War Room? That's gross," Rogue's eyes widened.

"Oh," Asuka seemed embarrassed, "Not like that. It's just a figure of speech,"

Rogue said, "Oh,"

Asuka said, "You should go assemble the girls to counter them,"

"Huh?" Rogue asked.

"Ranma tends to do these weird 'Guys vs Girls' comparisons from time to time,"

Asuka shrugged, "If you let him talk for too long, he'll probably end up

converting Beast and Logan into sexists just like him,"

"R-really?" Rogue perked an eyebrow.

Asuka said, "I better head down there and argue with him before things get

outta hand,"

"Ya think I should go round up the others?" Rogue asked, "Um, to provide

support?"

She didn't really know what to say. She had never been in such a situation

before. Actually, she was very sure none of them had ever been in such a

situation. Ever since Ranma's arrival, they found themselves in situations they

have no idea how to deal with. In any situation, if some guy offended any of the

women in the school with some sexist remark, they would probably threaten him or

hurt him a bit. That ALWAYS worked. How were they to deal with a situation where

that WILL NOT work?

Asuka grinned, "Sure, round up the others. Looks like we have a battle on our

hands,"

"We do?" Rogue asked, "Like what kinda battle?"

"A verbal battle,"

Asuka and the adult females entered the War Room as Ranma, Logan, and Beast

seemed to be laughing about something, most likely some crude joke Ranma had

made.

"What seems to be so funny, guys?" Psylocke asked, wondering what she and the

others were getting themselves into. Asuka had waited for them near all to

assemble and had briefed them about Ranma and his antics.

From what she had heard, Ranma could be downright vicious with his verbal

assaults. Even though she was told that most of the comments Ranma said were not

direct verbal attacks on her, she wondered just how offensive he could get.

The atmosphere of the room seemed to suddenly change now that it seemed to be

occupied by females as well as males. Beast and Logan seemed to instinctively

sit a bit more upright as they sat around a table. Ranma, whom had been

standing, seemed to be perfectly at ease.

"I talking to the guys about stuff," Ranma said.

"Like what?" Asuka asked, knowing with was probably something really stupid.

"I was mentioning about cats and what the heck girls seem to like 'em so

much," Ranma said.

"Oh boy, here we go," Asuka smirked, "What about them?"

"I don't understand why girls seem to like cats so much. It's not like a cat

can save your life or anything. A dog, on the other hand, can," Ranma said, "For

instance, if you're drowning, it's not like a cat can swim up to you and keep

you from drowning and save your life. A dog can and will save your life. And if

you're starving, if you hafta eat your pet to survive, a cat is small and

probably won't have as much meat as a dog either,"

Logan and Beast seemed to burst out laughing. Even though it was a tasteless

observation, it was a funny one as well.

"That's sick," Storm said at Ranma's comment.

"See? Foot-in-mouth syndrome," Asuka said to the girls.

"That's why I think being a man is better than being a woman," Ranma continued

on, seemingly on a roll, "A dog is man's best friend. A diamond is woman's best

friend. Who do you think is the smarter sex here? Man, because a dog can save

his life,"

"Wow, that is a truly obnoxious thing to say, Ranma," Jean said, shocked at

Ranma's audacity.

Asuka, used to Ranma's antics, didn't want Ranma to get any moment.

"You're wrong, being a woman is better," Asuka said.

"Oh," Ranma smirked, ready for battle, "How so?"

"On dates, we get free drinks, free dinners, free movies," she smirked.

"That's good since women probably don't make as much money to pay for stuff

like that," Ranma countered, grinning, "Then again, you girls can complain about

a 'glass ceiling' when that does occur. But then again, now that I think about

it, being a guy is better since there is no glass ceiling to begin with,"

"Oh my god, I did not just hear that!" Storm said.

Outside the school, dark clouds were forming overhead, Storm's temper rising.

"So what?" Asuka said, "At we smell good,"

Ranma tried to think of something to say.

Beast and Logan, definitely not wanting to be associated with Ranma's way of

thinking, as amusing as it was to them, involuntarily sniffed at their clothes.

Maybe they do smell a bit, but not enough to be considered 'dirty'.

"What's with you guys picking up your dirty clothes with your toes?" Asuka

asked, "Do you know how stupid that looks? Is it so hard to bend over and pick

the clothes up? And speaking of which, do you know what a 'hamper' is? A

'hamper' is not the 'floor',"

The girls snickered, especially Jean. Cyclops had that weird tendency of

leaving his clothes around from time to time and several times she say him pick

it up with his toes.

"And what's with guys and your weird obsession with toys?" Asuka continued on,

"We play with dolls and eventually grow outta it. You guys never do. You just

get more expensive and complicated toys, except they're called gadgets nowadays.

Heck, they would still really like to own a train set. What gives? Men seem to

like things that blink, beep, and requires at least six batteries to operate,"

Beast's lips became a thin line. Asuka's comment seemed to hit home with him

since he actually owned various gadgets.

"And men are stupid because they refuse to ask for directions," Asuka was now

on a roll, "It's like you consider it a sign of weakness to ask for direction.

In biblical times, the children of Israel wandered the desert for 40 years.

Jeez, you know why? Because none of the men would ask for directions,"

The group of girls burst out laughing.

"And how come men have crappy penmanship?" Asuka asked, "You can easily tell

when a guy wrote something because what they write usually looks like chicken

scratch,"

"So what? You think women's penmanship is any better?" Ranma countered,

"What's with women doiting their 'i's with circles and hearts? And don't forget

that women seem to enjoy using giant loops in their p's and q's. Women's

penmanship is no better then men,"

"At least ours is legible," Asuka said.

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward her.

"Men are ill-read," Asuka said, "They never read,"

Beast was about to interrupt to say that he would definitely be an exception

since he had read all the books in the library.

"Men tend to only read stuff when they're sitting on the toilet," she

finished.

Beast quickly shut his mouth. Perhaps Asuka did have a point there.

"Hey, what else are we supposed to do?" Ranma asked, "If there's no book or

magazine to read, we'll probably just read the stuff in or wallets,"

"Yeah, reading stuff like the back of your license," Asuka smirked, "The only

time men probably ever read the back of their license card is when they're on

the toilet,"

Ranma gave a shy smile. Asuka was definitely right about that.

"Men have no idea how to take care of plants," Asuka said, grinning, "Even if

a guy has to only water it, he will still screw that up,"

"Hey, I watered the plant back at home like I was asked," Ranma said, knowing

it was verbally intended toward him, "No one knows how those plants died,"

"Men seem to like danger," she continued on, "Maybe that's why men like to

barbeque. They will only cook if danger is involved,"

The group burst out in laughter. Logan liked to barbeque and Asuka's comment

seemed to fit him quite well even though it wasn't directed toward him.

"A man is a person who will pay two dollars for a one dollar item he wants,"

Ranma said, "A woman will pay one dollar for a two dollar item that she doesn't

want. That's why they're also likely to by a new brand of beer because it was

sale. And, no, beer isn't beer,"

Logan burst out laughing. He remembered finding some weird brand of beer in

the fridge once that he had never heard of and wondered who bought it. Now he

knew that one of the girls must have bought that.

"Girls can't really drive," Ranma said from out of the blue. He didn't bother

to mention that Priss could probably out-drive most guys. She happened to be an

exception to the rule.

"And what proof do you have to claim something like that?" Psylocke asked,

angry.

"I think it's those mirrors in the car," Ranma stated, "You girls are always

looking at those mirrors to do crap like putting on make-up and such. Heck, that

could explain why girls seem to only use mirror when backing up a car, because

they're so used to looking at the mirrors in the first place,"

"Sugah, yer treadin' on thin ice there," Rogue said coldly, "You best be

watchin' what you say,"

Ranma smirked, "I noticed you girls seemed to enjoy laughing at the remarks

Asuka was making. Seems to me like you can dish it but you can't take it,"

All the girls seemed to view that as a personal challenge directed toward them

individually.

"Bring it," Ranma grinned, "Let's see whatcha 'Cameltoe Girls' have in

retaliation,"

"'Cameltoe Girls'?" they looked at one another.

"Well, you girls wear really tight clothes and all, and it gives a really good

frontal wedgie and...you get the point," Ranma grinned.

Beast and Logan looked at each other, shocked that Ranma would actually say

that.

"You damn pervert!" everyone seemed to shout at him in unison.

At that instant, the women swore off to wearing their X-Men outfits forever.

They never suspected something like that but it seemed like that was possible.

They wore really tight clothes and there was a good chance that they got wedgies

in their crotch areas. But never had they expected someone like Ranma to

actually point it out.

Ranma turned toward Beast and Logan, "What, you guys haven't noticed?

Considering how tight their clothes are, how can you not notice?"

"W-we've never noticed that before, EVER," Beast said. He was an observant

guy, but not that observant.

Ranma smirked. Beast had just made a perfect comment that left him and Logan

wide open for the mother of all jokes.

He shrugged, "Well, I guess that's understandable since you two are gay,"

"What?" everyone in the room shouted.

"What, did I say something wrong?" Ranma asked, "What, was I not supposed to

say that out loud?"

"W-what on earth makes you think I gay, bub?" Logan stammered, who believed he

was as far from gay as possible.

"Those uniforms you guys wear," Ranma stated, "I just figure no heterosexual

male would be caught dead wearing tights like that,"

Claws shot out from Logan's fists and he began walking toward Ranma, "I think

I'm going to make you bleed for making that comment,"

"Also, aren't you guys referred to as homo-superior?" Ranma asked, scratched

his head, "As in, like, a much superior form of 'homo'? Like as in a super-

homosexual?"

Logan fell, floored by the comment.

"Homo-superior is the term that refers to for mutants," Beast said, finding

Ranma's comment amusing and insulting at the same time, "It's like how homo-

sapiens refer to humans. Homo-superior refer to mutants,"

"A-all this time...y-you thought we were gay?" Logan asked, trying to keep

from going into a berserker rage on Ranma.

Ranma nodded.

"Um, if that was the case, wouldn't you find it strange that Jean and Cyclops

are married?" Beast asked, trying to explain things from a logical standpoint.

Ranma shrugged, "So what, there are always exceptions. If figure they were

exceptions and heterosexuals,"

Psylocke pointed to herself, "You thought I was gay, as in liking women?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. That's why I always hung around the War Room. I was

hoping to catch two girls fighting and end up accidentally kissing each other

and things branching out from there. If you girls were gay, I figured I'd be in

for a show,"

There was an awkward moment of tension in the room as everyone tried to think

of something to say.

"Um, you do know I'm joking around, right?" Ranma asked toward everyone, "I'm

just messing with you guys. I know homo-superior means mutants,"

At that moment, the room was suddenly bathed in a red light as an alarm

sounded. For something like that to happen, it only meant one thing.

"Damn plot devices," Ranma muttered, "Why do shit like this always happen?"

"Huh?" Jean asked him.

"Nevermind," he waved a dismissive hand.

Beast quickly typed a few key on his computer and turned toward the groups as

everyone rushed out of the room.

"What's going on?" Ranma asked.

"We're under attack," Beast said.

"Ooh, interesting," Ranma smiled.

Juggernaut was not happy.

Having spotted a picture of Ranma on television with the X-Men, news reports

of him saving those children still on the news, Juggernaut came specifically to

the Xavier Institute to find out from the X-Men who and where the man who

humiliated him was.

He wanted revenge.

The X-Men rushed out of the school, not knowing what to expected. Hey all

emerged from different areas of the school, some from the back, some from the

front, some from the windows. This was a precaution shout there be someone

setting up an ambush at certain locations around the school, it would prevent

the entire team from being taken out in one fell swoop.

Ranma was eating an apple as he exited the school through the front door,

Asuka nervously behind him. The X-Men had told him they could handle this on

their own and that he should stay back. It seems like they wanted to prove to

Ranma than they weren't as useless

He spotted Juggernaut crossing the front field walking in the direction of the

school. The X-Men could be seen fighting him.

Jean was picking up large rocks scattered around the school and hurling them

toward him using the telekinesis. Rogue and Logan and Psylocke tried to slug it

out with him, narrowly avoiding his attacks in retaliation. Ranma noticed they

all seemed to concentrate their attacks on the back of Juggernaut's neck by his

helmet.

"Hm, from the way things look, it seems like they're trying to get his helmet

off," Ranma commented.

Storm seemed to be doing a fairly good job distracting him. She constantly

sent column of ice toward him, freezing his lower body which seemed to distract

and frustrate him because he constantly found himself having to punch the ice to

break himself free.

Cyclops went about shooting toward his legs, constantly sending him staggering

for balance as the blasts seemed to constantly propel one leg backwards to keep

him off balance.

Nightcrawler used his teleportation ability to appear in front of him, further

distracting him as he would try and swat the mutant away, only to miss as

Nightcrawler would teleport to safety.

Beast seemed to be holding out fairly well against him, using his superior

acrobatic skills and agility to keep him further distracted in trying to attack

him as well.

Ranma noticed that the X-Men seemed to have a great sense of teamwork, working

together in unison. From the looks of things, Logan looked to be the front man

for the attack. Everyone seemed to be concentrating at distracting Juggernaut so

Logan could hop on his back and slice at his neck area, only to jump off

immediately or risk being be swatted off and getting hurt.

As the battle raged on far longer than expected, reaching beyond one minute in

duration, Ranma started wondering if the X-Men were holding back or Juggernaut

was that strong.

Juggernaut reached out and grabbed a nearby tree, ripping it out of the ground

with one giant hand. He swung it around a few times, managing to hit Rogue as

she flew around, sending her spiraling toward the school uncontrollably.

"Rogue!" everyone shouted toward her, concerned for her safety.

Ranma jumped up and caught her gently in his arms, stopping her forward

momentum by twisting in the air so that his feet touched the wall before

bouncing off it and down to the ground, Rogue still in his arms.

As he landed, Logan could be seen flying bodily away and crashing into the

front entrance, swatted away by a well-times tree swing on Juggernaut's behalf.

Ranma looked in through the opening where the entrance was and noticed Logan

was already getting back up to his feet. Ranma couldn't help but smirk,

impressed on how tough Logan was.

"You're a tough guy, Logan," Ranma commented as Logan out from the opening and

past him, heading straight toward Juggernaut as he punched at the other

remaining X-Men, his tree of a weapon destroyed by a well-aimed optic blast on

Cyclops' behalf.

He looked at the broken door, "Man, and I just fixed that,"

The door was destroyed and it seemed like it needed to be replaced entirely.

"You okay?" he asked Rogue, realizing he was still holding her.

Rogue didn't seem to be aware that Ranma had just saved her as she shook the

cobwebs from her head and broke out toward Juggernaut again.

"Now Ah'm really mad!" she shouted.

She struck Juggernaut right in the face with all her might, sending him flying

through the across the front field where he came to a sliding halt on his back a

good distance away. That seemed to do quite a number on him as he seemed

momentarily disoriented as he tried to get back up to his feet.

Storm took that opportunity to freeze his entire body save for his head area.

From there, Logan jumped on his back and sliced at his neck area, slicing into

his armor.

Rogue got on his back and braced her feet on his shoulder. She then dug her

fingers into the opening in the armor that Logan created using his claws and

pulled at his helmet, yanking the helmet right off his head.

"Oh, so that's how he looks like," Ranma said, noticing Juggernaut had the

face of a regular human with short blond hair. Juggernaut looked like a huge

human.

He watched as Jean seemed to do some kind of telepathic attack on Juggernaut's

mind, causing him clutch at his head like he was having a terrible headache.

After thrashing around for a bit, he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Wow, Jean's strong," Ranma whistled, "She took down that big guy by herself,"

Asuka smirked, "Jean and Rogue seemed to have done the most damage to that big

guy and seemed to have been the key players in taking him down. Logan seemed to

have helped out, but only a little bit,"

Ranma nodded, "You, it seems so,"

"You know what that means?" Asuka grinned.

"What?" he asked.

"It proves that argument we were having earlier in the War Room," she stated.

"What argument is that?" he asked curiously.

"That women ARE better then men,"

Ranma fell to the ground.

Asuka giggled.

"What's this 'The Vault' that you're talking about?" Ranma asked.

Ranma and Asuka were now sitting in the cabin of the Blackbird. Everyone else

was on in the Blackbird as well. The group was on their way to Colorado to drop

of the unconscious Juggernaut, who was in the back of the plane with Jean

watching over him and keeping a telepathic link on him to keep him from waking

back up.

"The Vault is a nickname for a government maximum security installation

located underground in the Rocky Mountain Range," Beast said, "It's basically

facility for the incarceration of superhuman criminals and extremely powerful

mutants,"

"Oh, so it's like some kinda prison," Ranma said.

Beast nodded, "Because mutants can be criminals much like regular humans, the

facility is designed specifically to contain such mutants. This is because some

mutants can be extremely powerful that conventional prisons would not be able to

contain them,"

"What, Juggernaut is a criminal?" Ranma asked.

Beast shook his head, "Yes and no,"

"Great, you're being as cryptic as women now," Ranma commented.

"What was that?" Asuka narrowed her eyes at him.

Beast cleared his throat, "Juggernaut isn't considered a criminal in such that

he does crimes like murdering people and such. He is considered a menace to

society because of his disregard of human property,"

"If that's the case, then how come you didn't take him in when I beat him up

back then during the auction?" Ranma asked, "Sounds kinda like incompetence to

me,"

Beast said, "Our job is to stop powerful mutants from doing terrible things.

We never really go much beyond that. We let authorities deal with it. As an

analogy, think of us as like that of firefighters. We stop the fire that could

take lives. We don't stay around to figure out if the fire had been started by

some arsonist or if it were accidental. We have a specific job of dealing with

powerful mutants and basically neutralizing them. Everything after that is up to

the authorities of that particular country to deal with the aftermath. Besides,

keep in mind, in the eyes of the most governments, the X-Men are considered

every bit as dangerous as super-villains like Magneto. We can't stay around and

help the authorities because they would try and apprehend us as well,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "Sounds complicated,"

Beast nodded, "Quite,"

"If this vault place is government facility, does that mean they'll attack the

X-Men on sight?" Ranma asked.

"More or less, yes," Beast said.

"Damn, I never knew that," Ranma said.

"To the public, the X-Men are more or less liked and disliked evenly," Beast

said, "From the government's point of view, we're considered every bit as evil

as people like Magneto and such. It's very touchy,"

Ranma laughed, "That's kinda like me back home. The government kinda hates me

because I've done some bad things and they only see that point. They don't seem

to believe in the concept that the ends justify the means,"

"That Juggernaut guy," Asuka said, "He looks really strong, there's places

like that that can hold him? I mean this guy picked up a tree from the ground

with one hand,"

Beast nodded, "Such a facility is designed to house people like him,"

"How so?" Ranma asked.

"The facility is made of adamantium," Beast said, "Not even someone like The

Hulk can break adamantium,"

"The Hulk?" Ranma asked.

"A really strong person," Beast stated, "Very very very very strong. This guy

has fought Juggernaut on several occasions and can beat him pretty easily,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "Hey, is he a bad guy? Can I fight him?"

The cabin because deathly quite.

Beast cleared his throat, "No, he isn't a 'bad guy',"

"Oh," Ranma seemed disappointed.

"Juggernaut would most likely be put in a holding cell very much like a

regular prison cell," Beast said, "Of course, the difference is that that cell

is made of adamantium walls and bars so he won't be able to physically break

out. Adamantium is the strongest material in existence and is considered

impervious,"

"Wow, that stuff must be strong," Asuka said, "It's stronger than diamond?"

"Much much stronger," Beast smiled with a nodded, "Diamond isn't all that

strong and can shatter real easily. It is hard though, but no where near as hard

as admantium,"

"So does that mean if that Juggernaut guy tries to punch adamantium, it

wouldn't even make a dent?" Asuka asked.

Beast nodded, "I'm very confident that it would not dent. I used to be part of

The Avengers before I joined X-Men and the only instance I can recall where

adamantium was dented was when Thor used his hammer to dent Captain America's

shield. Thor's hammer is definitely stronger than a punch from Juggernaut,"

"The Avengers? Thor? Captain America?" Ranma chuckled, "Man, this universe's

got some really weird names,"

"They're not real names, they're just aliases," Beast said, somewhat annoyed

that Ranma seemed to always make fun of names that existed.

"I know," Ranma smiled, "It's just kinda funny. That's all. I guess it's

better calling someone, Spider-Man instead Peter Parker,"

"Peter Parker?" several crew members asked in unison.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Um, nevermind. It was just a random name. It's not

like Spider-Man's real name is Peter Parker,"

Logan snickered. He knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man and it seemed like Ranma

somehow knew as well. As to how, he had no idea. He found it amusing that Ranma

seemed to have inadvertently revealed Spider-Man's identity.

Jean, who also knew of Spider-Man's identity, snickered. She stood by the door

between the cabin and back of the Blackbird, a constant eye on Juggernaut as she

listened in on the conversations. She had found out Spider-Man's identity during

a mission when she attempted to find out if Spider-Man was a mutant and found

out he wasn't, that he was some person named Peter Parker that came across his

powers.

"I wonder if it's prudent that we should tell you secret stuff like the

whereabouts of 'The Vault' and how adamantium is made," Beast smirked, "If you

reveal secrets that easily when you're not supposed to, who knows what secrets

you could reveal inadvertently to people that would exploit such secrets,"

Ranma shrugged, "Well, you can choose to not tell me anything, but it's not

like I can't find out anyway so I don't really care. I can find out what you

know or don't know whether you like it or not,"

"How so?" Beast was curious.

"All I need is to look deep into a person's eyes. Afterall, eyes are a window

to a person's soul," Ranma looked around, talking to himself, "Hm, who here

should I test it out on?"

Logan happened to be sitting nearby.

"Ah, a ginea pig," Ranma grinned, "I'll use Logan,"

"Me?" Logan asked.

Ranma leaned forward toward Logan and looked deep into his eyes.

"Hey, you best be gettin' yer face away from me if y'know what's good for

you," Logan sneered, a claw shooting out and coming within inches from the

bottom of Ranma's chin.

"Hm, let's see what secrets you have," Ranma said.

Logan didn't turn his gaze away, annoyed with having his space invaded, but

curious as to what Ranma said. He had so many secrets, like his past, and was

really curious as to what Ranma could find, provided Ranma wasn't just kidding

around.

"You like wearing women's panties," Ranma said, as if reading Logan's secrets

from a list.

"What?" Logan's eyes widened in shock, knowing full well that Ranma's lying.

"Ew," several of the females in the cabin looked at Logan.

Logan looked positively mortified. He quickly turned toward Ranma and pointed

both sets of claws toward his throat, "Y'better tell 'em you're joking around,

Ranma! You've got three seconds before I cut your head off your shoulders,"

"I was only kidding," Ranma leaned back, holding his hands defensively.

"Tell them!" Logan shouted toward Ranma.

"Damn, you're no fun," Ranma said, turning toward the group of females, "I was

only messing around. Seems like Logan here can't take a joke,"

"I can take a joke, bub," Logan sneered, "But not when it's at my expense,"

Ranma shrugged.

"So, that thing with you finding out secrets, that was all just a joke?" Beast

asked.

Ranma shook his head, "No. That I wasn't kiddin' about,"

Logan narrowed his eyes, "Okay, try it on me again, and if you joke around,

I'm gonna stab y'through the heart,"

"You can go ahead and try, I don't really care," Ranma shrugged.

"Go on, what do you see?" Beast asked curiously. The entire group was well

aware that Logan was by far the most mysterious of the team. No one really knew

much about Logan's past, not even Logan. He had so many gaps in his memory and a

lot of those memories were very inconsistent that he didn't really know what

parts of his memory was real or fake.

Ranma looked at Logan's eyes for a bit.

"Damn, you've got a fucked up past," Ranma said.

"That I'm aware of," Logan said.

"All right, I'll just tell you some random things about you then," Ranma said,

"Hm, lettme see, your real name isn't Logan, it's James Howlett. Hey, what year

is it on this world?"

Logan told him the year. "Why do you ask?"

"Wow, you were born in...1880. Damn, you're old. You're over a hundred and

twenty years old,"

"James Howlett?" Logan asked, skeptic, "That's my real name?"

He didn't believe Ranma one bit but remained open-minded. He remembered almost

dying once and seeing a vision of a woman that looked a bit like Jean calling

him 'James' once. Could that mean something?

Ranma scratched his head, "Um, I'm not too sure. I'm having a hard time

reading you. There's so much weird stuff that I dunno what to make of it. It's

like you've got fake memories mixed in with real ones that I'm having trouble

distinguishing the two,"

"Just tell me what you think you see," Logan said impatiently, "I'll decide

what's real or not,"

"Okay," Ranma continued on, "You killed your father with your claws. The time

it happened seems to be the first time you discovered you have claws. There's a

girl from when you liked named...Rosa...no, Rose. That's it. Wait, maybe you

don't like her because you killed her. Wait, scratch that, you accidentally

killed her when she jumped in front of you. She was trying to break something

up. Hm, ah, you were fighting against someone who had come to try and kill you

and Rose,"

"Who?" Logan asked.

"Hm, Dog," Ranma said, "Hm, that's an odd name. His name was Dog, he was your

half brother,"

"This is really weird," Rogue commented, trying to follow the story.

"Yeah, your father was some grounds keeper to an estate," Ranma said, "Your

mom had an affair with the grounds keeper. Seems like no one but she knew. Seems

like the person you thought was your father really wasn't. Your real father

killed him, and you ended up killing your real father for doing so,"

Logan shoved Ranma away, "That's enough,"

"What, you don't wanna hear more?" Ranma asked.

"If the stuff you're telling me is true, I'd rather not know," Logan said

truthfully, "Seems to me, I'm better off not knowing about my past than

knowing,"

"Are you sure?" Ranma asked.

"I'm sure," he said.

"Okay, suit yourself," Ranma shrugged.

"You're not joking, right?" Storm asked Ranma, "What you saw was real?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, at least I think so. Whether or not what I saw were real

memories or fake, I can't really tell,"

"How did you do that?" Beast said, "You can really read a person's mind just

by looking in their eyes?"

Ranma shook his head, "Yes and no. I can see deeper than that, all the way to

their soul. But since their mind is a part of their soul, I guess, yeah, I can

read their mind,"

"How do you do something like that?" Beast asked, "Is that one of your special

abilities?"

Ranma shook his head, "No. I knew how to do that for, like, ever. I just don't

do it. Anyone can do it, but I don't really know how to explain how to do it.

It's kinda like explaining how to ride a bike,"

"T-that's an incredible talent," Jean said, "That's better than telepathy. If

what you saw of Logan's past was true, then you saw more than what I or Xavier

could see using Cerebro when we tried reading into his past,"

Ranma said, "But I dunno if they're real or not. Logan's head is fucked up,"

Logan sneered toward Ranma.

"What did you say about my head?"

new stuff 8/1

Cyclops, whom had been flying the plane and put it on auto-pilot, entered the

cabin.

"We'll be arriving at the Rockies in fifteen minutes," he said.

"Wow, I guess Colorado's close to New York, huh?" Ranma asked.

Cyclops smirked, "Not quite,"

He didn't have that much animosity toward Ranma for what he had done back in

Madripoor. Asuka approached him this morning and apologized about the

misunderstanding, all thanks to Ranma having cleared things up between the two

of them.

"How far is it from New York to Colorado?" Ranma asked.

"A bit less than two thousand miles," Cyclops answered.

"Whoa, the Blackbird must be seriously fast to be able to travel that distance

in such a short time," Ranma whistled.

Cyclops turned toward Rogue, "You ready?"

Rogue nodded, "Yep,"

"So, what's the plan, we just drop that Juggernaut guy off and be on our way?"

Ranma asked.

Cyclops shook his head, "Yes,"

"Do you guys get some kind of reward for bringing him in or something?" Ranma

asked, jerking a thumb toward the back of the plane.

"Yeah, if you can consider bullets toward our head a reward," Rogue muttered.

"Oh yeah, you guys are sought after by the government as well, I forgot,"

Ranma commented, "That sucks. Must piss you guys off,"

"We're used to it," Logan stated.

Jean and Rogue both headed into the back of the plane.

"What, just Jean and Rogue are going?" Ranma asked, "I'll come along and keep

'em company,"

Cyclops said, "They can do fine without you. Rogue's just going to fly him

down to the entrance to The Vault while Jean maintains a telepathic link with

him to keep him unconscious so he doesn't wake up during the descent. After we

drop him off, the guards there will be able to take him in and contain him,"

"They can handle him if he wakes up?" Ranma asked.

"The guards all wear Guardsman Armor," Beast said, "It's a battle suit

designed by Anthony Stark of Stark International, and it makes the wearer very

powerful. Even though Juggernaut would be able to take a guard or two wearing

such armor individually, there are a few dozen guards he'd have to contend with

and all guards wear the armor. They would be able to take him down after he

wakes back up after Rogue and Jean leave,"

Ranma smirked, "If they're powerful enough to take down Juggernaut, doesn't

that make them powerful enough to take down Jean and Rogue. I assume they're not

like humans or such where Jean can use telepathy to just make them not attack

you guys,"

"They're only going to be in harm's way for a very short time," Cyclops said,

"They're just going to fly down there and drop him off and be on their way. They

have the element of surprise. They'll just pop up and be gone before they know

what to do. When they're gone, they'll have Juggernaut and won't bother chasing

after them to contend with him,"

"Sounds like a good plan," Ranma shrugged, "Good luck,"

"Thanks," Rogue and Jean said.

"Don't fuck up and get caught or nothing," Ranma smirked.

"Couldn't you have left it at 'good luck' instead of adding in that extra

comment?" Jean asked.

Ranma gave a shy smile.

Rogue and Jean was expecting to drop Juggernaut off and be long gone before

anyone realized what had happened but was in for quite a shock. There had been

two Guardsman standing near the front entrance to The Vault, a giant steel door

that led right into the side of a mountain, a long dirt trail leading up to the

entrance.

The moment Rogue dropped Juggernaut off right by the front entrance, an

explosion occurred nearby, as if someone had set off a grenade within her

general proximity, sending flying bodily through the air where she landed a good

distance away from Jean, disoriented.

When she managed to get back to her feet, she caught sight of Jean getting

tackled to the ground by two Guardsman that seemed to have appeared from the

foliage and tree that lined the road leading up to The Vault's entrance.

She heard footsteps coming from behind her and looked over her shoulder to see

several other Guardsman emerging from the foliage behind her.

"What the?" Rogue said, wondering what had happened.

Where did all these Guardsman come from? It was as if they were expecting them

or something.

Rogue caught sight of several Guardsman flying toward her. She took to the

skies as they flew right by her, narrowly missing tackling her. She didn't

manage to make it more than twenty feet into the air before she was tackled from

behind by another Guardsman and brought down to the ground where dozens of

Guardsman converged on her, eventually overwhelming her and pinning her down to

the ground.

"Let go of us!" Rogue sneered as she found herself pinned down on her stomach,

her arms and legs held fast and unmoving. She looked down the road where she

noticed Jean in the exact same dilemma as herself. This confused Rogue because

Jean should be able to use her telekinetic powers to at least propel the

Guardsman pinning her down away from her.

Rogue noticed that there was some metallic-looking band that seemed to have

been placed around Jean's neck. Rogue didn't know what it was but she knew that

it probably had something to do Jean being unable to fight back.

"What did y'do do Jean?" Rogue sneered.

She suddenly felt something wrap around her neck. The instant it did, she

suddenly felt as if she had lost all her mutant powers. It felt very much when

she lost her powers all of a sudden during the auction moments before a wave of

soldiers appeared and started attacking the church.

Her eyes widened as she suddenly realized that the metallic band that had been

placed around her neck was some kind of suppressor similar to the ones she and

everyone else encountered.

As she struggled to free herself, she noticed all but one of the Guardsman

that had been pinning her down ran away from her to deal with Juggernaut.

Looking forward, she caught sight of over a dozen Guardsman converging on and

fighting Juggernaut, whom had just started waking up. Although Juggernaut seemed

to be able to actually knock a few of those Guardsman out, she noticed that

Juggernaut seemed unable to take them all on, eventually falling unconscious

when she noticed some metallic band placed around his head, a different device

used to incapacitate him through mental means.

Rogue looked around and counted thirty-five Guardsman. She didn't know how

they knew she and Jean would be showing up, but she definitely knew that the two

of them had somehow gotten caught.

Rogue hopped Jean managed to get the word out to the X-Men before she lost her

powers.

Meanwhile, back on the Blackbird as it hovered high in the clouds located

above the mountain range.

"Jean and Rogue got caught," Cyclops said in shock as he emerged from the

cabin.

"What?" everyone was shocked to hear.

No one had expected this to happen which was what shocked them so much when

Cyclops told everyone that Jean had established a telepathic link with him

temporarily saying that was and Rogue were both under attack, that there had

somehow been an ambush, before the link was suddenly cut off.

"How did this happen?" Cyclops looked concerned.

No one in the plane could understand what had happened or how that could have

happened.

"For a facility to react in time to capture both Jean and Rogue in such a

short time must mean they were expecting them or something," Beast stated, "But

how is that possible, for them to expect us to be coming,"

"You're right, it doesn't make sense," Storm said.

Logan was heading toward the cockpit to the plane.

"Where are you going, Logan?" Cyclops asked.

"Where do y'think?" Logan said, "I'm going go land this plane. I'm gonna go

get 'em out,"

Ranma smiled.

"Ooh, time for some fun,"

Ranma and Asuka walked side by side as Cyclops and several X-Men members were

headed toward The Vault way up ahead of them. They were slowly making their way

through the woods in the general direction of The Vault's entrance. The

Blackbird had landed about a mile away on a plateau. Storm, Nightcrawler, and

Psylocke had stayed behind to guard the Blackbird. God forbid their location be

discovered and attacked. They needed members around to defend it so the

Blackbird go take off and fly to a safe rendezvous point they had planned out

should something like that happen.

Ranma and Asuka slowly followed the small strike team that consisted of

Psylocke, Logan, and Cyclops, acting at their backup should they need it. Ranma

had been asked to stay back and let the X-Men deal with the situation at hand.

He had been asked to be their back up.

"What do you think happened?" Ranma asked, "For Rogue and Jean to get

captured, they must've been waiting for them,"

Asuka nodded, "That's what Beast says,"

"Do you think that one of the X-Men members is a spy?" Ranma asked, "Maybe

someone on X-Men are leaking to the government the information about what the X-

Men are up to,"

"I think you've got an overactive imagination, Ranma," Asuka giggled.

Ranma asked, "Then what do you think it is? What do you think's the cause of

it?"

"I'm not too sure," Asuka said, "I'm stumped on why,"

Together, Ranma and Asuka walked in silence.

"I know!" Asuka's eyes widened.

Ranma smirked, "You should try and be a bit more quite. If you're loud,

someone could hear our approach,"

"Sorry," she blushed.

"So, what do you know?" Ranma asked curiously.

Asuka said, "I think I've figured it out. Because of the recent events that

had occurred with adamantium and vibranium being stolen from government

facilities, the government probably upped the security for this place as well,"

"But why?" Ranma asked, "Beast said it's a place that's used to house

superhuman criminals and such. It's not some storage or mining facility like the

ones that had been attacked,"

"Beast said it's made of adamantium," Asuka said, "Maybe they're not taking

chances and believe that this place might be attacked so that the adamantium

that line the holding sells are stolen,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Y'know what? That's probably it. It makes sense,"

"We should go tell the others," Asuka said.

Ranma grinned, "Heh, that also gives me an idea,"

Asuka regarded Ranma for a moment, "What kinda good idea?"

"I'm gonna steal the adamantium from here," he said.

"But wasn't the plan to wait until tomorrow night to go to Antarctica to get

the vibranium from that Melroy-base?" Asuka asked.

"Well, yeah, but way seems better," Ranma grinned, "Why should we bother

waiting when the adamantium is already here for the taking?"

"I dunno, maybe because this place might need it?" Asuka said sarcastically,

"There's this thing called a cell. Those things require adamantium to hold

certain criminals and prevent them from escaping. If you steal the adamantium,

they will escape,"

Ranma's lips became a thin line.

"Damnit, why d'ya hafta be right about that?" Ranma muttered, "And here I was

so ready to steal the adamantium, too,"

"Well you can't. It's needed to keep the criminals from escaping," Asuka

stated, "You understand?"

Ranma snorted in annoyance.

"Fine fine. I hear ya. The adamantium's needed to keep the criminals from

escaping. I won't steal it,"

"We've got company," Logan sniffed at the air.

The group stopped and silently waited. After a minute or so, two Guardsman

could be seen walking nearby, seemingly in the middle of their patrol route.

The group was about a quarter mile away from The Vault. This came as a

surprise because Beast had anticipated that Guardsman would not be found

patrolling the area.

"I think Asuka's right," Beast said to Cyclops, "It seems like security has

been upped around this facility, and most likely due to the incidents with those

adamantium and vibranium thefts,"

"What kind of resistance can we expect?" Cyclops asked.

Beast shrugged, "I don't know. I don't know all the details to this facility.

It's very secretive and I don't even know how many Guardsman there are. There

should be a few dozen, but the exact numbers I don't know. We need to exercise

stealth to the fullest. If we're detected, and a group Guardsman converge on us,

we're as good as captured,"

Ranma smirked, "Ooh, impossible odds, I like it,"

"Ranma, if it weren't for the fact that you're here with us and willing to

help us out, we would probably be going about this entirely differently," Beast

stated.

"Oh, how so?" Ranma asked.

"This is a government holding facility designed to contain mutants like us,"

Beast stated, "Actually, correction, its designed to contain mutants

significantly more powerful than us. We can easily assume, they took out Jean,

Rogue, and Juggernaut as he was waking up so they're not like those armed-

soldiers we've dealt with back during the auction. We're dealing with highly

trained guards that are wearing Guardsman Armor,"

"What would the X-Men do in a situation like this?" Asuka asked.

"In a situation like this, we would probably try and appeal to the government

to get them to release Jean and Rogue," Beast said, "We'd have to prove that

they were not here to attack the facility to steal the adamantium that the

government is worried about occurring. Unfortunately, getting them released like

that would take a long time,"

"The odds are definitely stacked against us," Cyclops said.

Logan smirked, "Jus' the way I like it,"

Cyclops turned toward Ranma, "I'm glad you're here to help us,"

"Yeah yeah, whatever, no problem," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

Beast turned toward Cyclops, "Well, what do you suggest?"

Cyclops said nothing, trying to conceive a course of action in this kind of

situation. He wondered if they should use stealth like Beast had suggested.

He wondered if they should just ostentatiously attack the front entrance to The

Vault.

"I know what to do," Ranma grinned.

Everyone turned their attention toward him. They had a funny feeling they knew

what he was going to suggest. Go raising Hell and go right through the front

door.

"Let's use the front door," Ranma grinned.

"We've should've known," everyone expected.

Jean and Rogue shared the same holding cell.

The holding cell was located deep underground within The Vault in one corner

of the lower level of the facility and they were being kept there until someone

figured out what to do with them. At the moment, they were basically waiting for

calls to be made so that they could be transported to some lesser-security

holding facility to be processed and dealt with accordingly.

The holding cell was empty save for Rogue and Jean and had adamantium bars and

adamantium-lined walls. They weren't even going to try to escaped because they

knew it was useless. Trying to break through adamantium was impossible even if

they had their power, let alone without them.

All the could do was wait.

Aside from the metal band that was worn around each other their necks, which

seemed to work as a suppressor device that suppressed their mutant powers, they

were perfectly fine. Their pride might be a bit hurt though since neither of

them seemed to have been much of a match against the Guardsman that ambushed

them.

Jean rubbed at the device attached to her neck. This was the second time she

had had her mutant powers suppressed in as many days and it really frustrated

her. Rogue didn't like it one bit either.

"These neck bands are made only of steel," Rogue muttered in frustration,

yanking at her, "I can break these with one finger if Ah had my power. It's so

frustratin',"

Jean sat down on the small bench in the corner of the holding cell, "There's

nothing we can do,"

Rogue kicked at the cell bars with all her might.

The bars were so solid and impervious that it didn't even vibrate from the

impact.

"That's what's so frustratin'," Rogue muttered as she began pacing back and

forth.

Although they couldn't see Juggernaut, they could hear him pounding away at

the bars of his cell in frustration. The knew that it was only a matter of time

before even Juggernaut realized that he couldn't used his brute strength to

break free.

A Guardsman walked right by the front of their holding cell, on his patrol.

"Ah can't believe yer doing this to us," Rogue shouted toward the Guardsman,

"Some thanks y'guys give, after we went through th' trouble of bringin'

Juggernaut here for y'guys,"

The Guardsman ignored the comment and continued on with his patrol.

Rogue sighed as she walked away from the bars and came to sit down next to

Jean.

"How long y'think we'll be in here?" Rogue asked, "How long do y'think it'll

be before our friends break us out? It's not like we'll ever be able t'break

out,"

Jean said, "Not for at least a few days, when we're being transferred,"

Neither Rogue nor Jean were considered truly dangerous mutants and would be

transferred to another facility not too long from now. The Vault needed its

sells for REAL dangerous criminals.

"Ah guess y'have a point," Rogue said with a sigh, "It'd be jus' plain suicide

fer them to attack and try and rescue us in here,"

"All we can do is wait to be transferred," Jean stated.

"Ah resent the fact that they don't consider me a powerful enough mutant for

them to hafta use one of their cells to hold me," Rogue said.

Jean smirked.

The interior of the facility bathed in a red light as an alarm sounded.

Jean and Rogue looked at one another.

Asuka came to a skidding halt as she finally came across the holding cell that

contained Jean and Rogue. Over twenty minutes after breaking through the front

entrance and looking around, she finally found them.

She turned down the corridor and called out to Ranma, "Ranma, I found them,"

"Asuka?" Jean said, "H-how'd?"

"Hiya, girls, y'miss me?" Ranma smiled as came to stand next to Asuka.

"Ranma, how-" Jean began.

"We broke in," Ranma said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "Cyclops and

Logan and Beast are getting their asses kicked topside. They're using themselves

as the distraction needed for the two of us to sneak in undetected,"

Jean gestured toward the bars, "It's great that you broke in and found us, but

how are you going to get through these bars? They're made of adamantium. What

you need to do is find the control center that contains the controls to

unlocking these computer-operated cell doors,"

Ranma chuckled, "That sounds like a good idea, but sounds a bit time

consuming. I don't know anything about computers nor where the control center

is,"

"What d'ya have in mind the?" Rogue asked.

He said, "I'm gonna break the bars out,"

"But they're made of-" Jean began, stepping back and away from the door with

Rogue.

Ranma reached out and grabbed two bars and yanked the two bars right off the

cell.

"Adamantium..." Jean finished her sentence.

He chucked two of the bars over his shoulder and gestured toward the opening

he had made, "Can you guys climb out through the opening?"

The girls, both still in a state of shock from seeing Ranma physically break

through adamantium, just stood right where they were.

Ranma reached out and grabbed a third bar and yank it out, "There, now there's

more than enough room,"

"H-h-how did you-" Jean began.

"I'm pretty strong," Ranma grinned.

"T-that's adamantium!" Jean said, "That stuff's indestructible,"

Ranma chuckled, "Seems like they're not,"

After they spent a moment to let the shock of what they saw settle in, Jean

and Rogue climbed out of their holding cell.

"Nice jewelry," Ranma smirked, gesturing toward their neck bands.

Asuka asked, "What are those?"

Jean subconsciously tugged at her neck band, "They're some kind of next-

generation suppressor devices. Our powers have been suppressed until we get them

off.

Ranma reached out with both hands and grabbed the neck band and snapped it

apart. When he did, she felt her powers suddenly come back. Ranma did so with

Rogue, her powers coming back as well.

"Thanks, Sugah," Rogue smiled warmly, rubbing at her neck, "You're all right,"

Footsteps could be heard approaching from down the corridor.

"We better hide," Jean stated, "I hear people coming,"

Ranma turned his attention down the corridor and shouted, "Hey, guys, they're

here,"

"Why're you letting the Guardsman know where we are?" Jean nearly shouted at

Ranma for being so crazy.

A moment later, Cyclops, Logan, and Beast rounded the corner and came running

down to where they were.

"You two okay?" Cyclops asked.

Jean nodded.

"We're fine, thanks t'Ranma here," Rogue nudged toward Ranma.

"How'd Ranma get you out?" Cyclops asked.

Beast noticed three bars of adamantium laying on the ground nearby. Looking

toward the cell the group was standing in front of and noticing that three bars

were missing, seemingly ripped out from it, Beast came to one conclusion.

"Ranma, these are adamantium bars," Beast stated, picking one of the bars up,

"How'd you managed to get these off?"

Jean said, "I still can't believe it, but we saw him rip them off with his

bare hands,"

"B-bare hands?" everyone gasped.

Ranma started heading down the corridor, "C'mon, let's get outta here before

local authorities show up,"

"Don't you mean more Guardsman?" Jean asked.

Beast said, "There aren't anymore, all of them had been incapacitated, most by

Ranma's own hands of course. All of them came out to fight us when we attacked

the entrance. Ranma took care of all of them. This facility is now basically

ours,"

"R-really?" Jean and Rogue said.

"We counted thirty-five Guardsman unconscious after the battle before we came

inside the facility," Beast said, "Shortly after we came inside, we found a

roster sheet that listed out thirty-five employees on duty at this point in

time. Looking at the sheet and the roster before security was upped, there would

only be around twenty Guardsman found in here at one time instead of all thirty-

five,"

"Ah remember countin' thirty-five Guardsman," Rogue said, "This was right

after we got captured,"

"It seems like the base is ours," Ranma smiled.

"Yes, but not for long," Beast stated, "Local authorities are most likely on

their way. We're in a remote location so it'll take them a while to get here,

but it's already been about a half and hour since we first attacked the base so

we really don't have much time left,"

"What're you so worried about local authorities for?" Ranma asked, "They're

human and it's not like you guys can't take them on. I'm sure local authorities

like the police and such are far easier to beat than those Guardsman,"

Cyclops said, "That's true, but doing such things is what gives mutants a bad

rep in the eyes of the humans. We don't want to have to deal with more authority

figures than need be,"

"Well, we've got the two we're looking for so I guess we can get outta here,"

Ranma said.

Beast shook his head, pointing toward one of the many cameras that lined the

corridors, "Not yet. This place is full of cameras. We need to find the

surveillance center and retrieve the camera recordings. Otherwise, the

government is going to be able to determined that the X-Men attacked The Vault,"

"We'll be first on the most wanted list if that happens," Cyclops commented,

"We're already high up on the list as it already is and having ourselves bumped

all the way to the top is not something we want,"

Ranma chuckled, "Heh heh, if that happens, you're up the shit creek, huh?"

"I don't care," Logan shrugged, grinning, "I have no gripes about fighting the

government or fightin' evil mutants. As long as I get t'cut things up, I'm

happy,"

Ranma smirked, "Man, you need a better outlet for your murderous intent. Have

you thought carrying around one of those squishy therapeutic balls that you can

squeeze? They might help?"

Logan narrowed his eyes.

Ranma turned toward Beast, "We need find the surveillance center, right?"

Beast nodded.

"Where would we be able to find it?" Ranma asked, "I don't remember passing

any kinda control centers or surveillance centers on our way in,"

"From the looks of things, a good guess would be that its location is further

within the facility," Beast said, "That would be a good preventive measure when

this facility was designed, to have the control center located deep within this

facility so a strike team intent on attacking this place to free the criminals

would need to make its way all the way through the entire facility and all the

Guardsman to do so,"

"Just how deep underground is this facility?" Ranma asked.

"I'm pretty sure that it's not much deeper," Beast stated.

"Well, let's head down some more then,"

The control room was located in the lowest level of the facility. It was a

combination of a security room and a surveillance room. The civilian operators

that had been manning the center had most likely long abandoned his post when

they saw that the base had been taken over after all the Guardsman had been

defeated and gone into hiding to await everything to blow over.

"Beast, it seems like your assumptions was correct," Cyclops smirked as they

entered the room.

"Thanks," Beast said, looking around.

He quickly headed over to a computer located in the corner of the room that

looked to be the master computer and began to type furiously at the computer.

The group just stood there and waited patiently for some news.

"I've got good news and bad news," Beast said, continuing to type, "The good

news is that we can get rid of the recordings of us attacking the base and

searching through it. There's no tape so we don't have to go around looking for

it. We can delete the recordings from this control center,"

"And what's the bad news?" Cyclops asked.

"The computer's lockout system has been implemented and it'll take me a while

before I can bypass it and delete the recordings," Beast said, "I really don't

know how long it'll take. It could take minutes. It could take hours. It could

even take days,"

"We don't have hours, let alone days," Cyclops said, "See what you can do,"

Ranma said, "Isn't there some kinda self-destruct thing for this place? Let's

just blow this place up. No more evidence,"

"This is an adamantium-lined facility," Beast said, "This place can't be blown

up. A nuclear bomb could go off in here and it won't damage the place. And even

if we could, there are incarcerated individuals in here that would be killed in

the process. We're not killers,"

"You guys may have problems with it," Logan smirked, "But I know I won't have

problems sleepin' at night,"

Ranma sat down on a chair and proceeded to swivel around in it, trying to make

himself dizzy, "Looks like we might be here for a while. Might as well make

ourselves comfortable,"

"That won't be the case since there will be quite a bit of heat coming down on

us not too long from now," Cyclops said, "We can hold them off, but it'll only

be a matter of time before we'll be overwhelmed,"

"But they're human, right?" Ranma said, "What's so hard about beating them

with your powers?"

Cyclops gestured toward the door, "So are the Guardsman. They're human as

well. We can only hold them out for so long before they start using armored

suits,"

"Wow, the humans on this world are pretty persistent buggers, ain't they?"

Ranma grinned.

"They're very persistent, yes," Cyclops said, "Especially when it comes to

fighting against mutants. They have the necessary equipment to battle very

powerful mutants. The only thing they have working against them is the amount of

time it takes to mobilize such troops capable of bringing down such mutants,"

Ranma said, "Ah, so that's why you guys never hang around after battles and

such. Eventually, the humans with the right equipment to take you guys out will

join the battle,"

Cyclops nodded.

"Heh, does that mean you guys, like, suck?" Ranma chuckled, "Humans kinda

frail creatures of you think of it,"

"Hey!" Asuka said, "What the heck do you mean by that? In case you're

wondering, I'm human and so are you, or at least you used to be. Remember? We

prevented Second Impact and save billions of lives. Don't consider humans so

weak,"

Ranma chuckled, leaning back in his chair, "I guess you've got a point,"

He looked around the room.

"Man, there's so much adamantium in this facility," he said, "Can't we steal a

little bit? If we do that, we won't hafta worry about going to Antarctica to get

the vibranium to make it,"

"We can't do that," Cyclops said, "This place is designed to holding

superhuman criminals. With some of them, adamantium is the only thing that can

keep them from escaping,"

Asuka said, "See? Didn't you remember what I told you earlier. Cyclops agrees

with me,"

Ranma scooted over toward one of the many computers that lined the wall and

looked at the screen.

"Computers are cool," Ranma commented, "I wish I knew how to use 'em. All I

know is how to surf the Interweb,"

"Internet," Asuka corrected him.

"Yeah, that," Ranma said.

"I'll be glad to show you after we are done with this," Beast said, not

bothering to look up from the screen, still typing furiously.

"Thanks,"

"Ranma! You pervert!" Asuka shouted at Ranma.

Everyone but Ranma had patiently stood by Beast, watching over his shoulder as

he did his best to bypass the computers security system. After watching for a

few minutes, Asuka heard typing from Ranma's vicinity and was wondering what he

was up to.

When she walked over to where he was and looked over his shoulder, she noticed

he was looking at images of naked women.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything wrong," Ranma said, "I'm just surfing the Web. So

what if I'm using it to look at porn,"

Jean and Rogue rushed over to where Ranma was and noticed the lewd images on

the screen he was in front of.

"Ranma!" the two of them shouted toward him.

"Hey, I ain't doing nothing wrong," Ranma said, "If I wanna look at porn, I'll

look at porn. What, you're gonna give me beef like during the time I picked up

that porno magazine?"

Cyclops and Logan walked over to where Ranma was and saw what had gotten girls

so upset.

Logan smirked. Only Ranma would look at porn while there were three girls in

the room.

"Ranma, what are you doing?" Cyclops said in a stern voice, "Why are you

looking at that smut?"

"I dunno, maybe because I want to?" Ranma said.

"That's not right. You're looking at women being exploited," Cyclops stated.

Ranma turned toward Cyclops, "Riiiiight. I'm sure women feel they're being

exploited when they're getting paid shitloads of money to pose nude. What a

buncha crock,"

Asuka reached a hand to cover the screen to prevent Ranma from looking at the

lewd images, "Don't look!"

For some odd reason, Jean and Rogue did the same, covering their hands over

the screen.

"You're sick in the head, Ranma," Jean said.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward Cyclops, "I dunno, Cyclops is probably the one

that's sick in the head to find porn offensive,"

Beast had to stop what he was doing to see what all the commotion was.

"What's going on?" he asked, approaching the group.

"Ranma's downloading porn," Cyclops said.

"Dude, you just, like, tattle-tell'd on me," Ranma said, "What is this,

elementary school?"

Beast scratched his head, "Downloading porn? Um, how's that possible? This

facility isn't connected to the Internet,"

"It isn't?" the group asked.

"Maybe Ranma's too stupid to realize that shouldn't be possible," Asuka

smirked.

Suddenly, the screen started flashing as a message was displayed on it.

Beast read the message.

"What the?" Beast's eyes widened, "Ranma just downloaded a virus,"

"H-how..." Beast couldn't understand, "How'd he do that?"

All of a sudden, a message was displayed as everything seemed to start

deleting at a rapid rate.

"Oh my god!" Beast said, "The virus is deleting everything in this facilities

computer system,"

Ranma smiled, "Really? Does that mean it'll delete the recordings of when we

attacked and took over the base?"

"It's already deleted it," Beast said, his voice showing signs of concern,

"But there's one big problem,"

"What?" everyone asked.

"It's also deleting all the programs to the security system," Beast said, "All

the criminals will be set loose,"

"What?" everyone shouted.

All of a sudden, sounds of criminals could be heard as they seemed to have

suddenly discovered that they were no longer confined to their cells. Sounds of

them cheering and shouting could be heard as they ran through the corridors.

Asuka shouted toward Ranma, "See what you did? Because you were surfing for

porn on the computer, you ended up downloading a virus. Now the virus wiped out

this facilities computer system and all the criminals that this facility is

housing are running around free,"

"Look on the bright side," Ranma smiled, "At least we don't hafta worry about

anyone finding out the X-Men originally attacked this base because the

recordings had been deleted in the process. Sure, things are kinda messed up,

but the ends justify the means,"

"Not in this case!" Jean said, "All the superhuman criminals are now running

around free,"

Beast looked at the screen as it seemed to have suddenly died, "Now we're in

real trouble. So many programs has been deleted that the system has crashed and

will never come back up again. This facility is no officially useless at

containing the criminals it was designed to contain,"

Ranma smiled, "This is awesome!"

"Awesome?" everyone asked, "How so?"

"How's this awesome?" Cyclops asked, hoping Ranma had a good plan to deal with

this. This is because he himself had no idea what to do in this kind of

situation Ranma seemed to have gotten them into, all because he was looking at

porn on a computer. And how the heck did he download a virus when the facility

isn't hooked up to the Internet in the first place?

Ranma smiled.

"Dontcha see? Since this facility is now useless, it doesn't need its

adamantium anymore so we can help ourselves to all the adamantium we need,"

new stuff 8/2

"It's probably easier to wait and get the vibranium instead of stealing the

adamantium from this place," Beast stated.

"How come?" Ranma asked, "Why do you say that?"

"You need a device called a Molecular Rearranger to alter the form of hardened

adamantium," Beast said, "When adamantium is formed and in liquid form, it's

much easier to mold it into what you want for when it hardens. When it's already

in its hardened form, you need the Molecular Rearranger device,"

"Where can it be found?" he asked.

"That I'm not too sure," Beast said, "I'm pretty sure I can find out where,

but it might take time. It's probably something the government has and its

location is secret. Then there's the problem where we have to acquire it and

understand how to use it. It's better to get the vibranium instead,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Y'think so?"

Beast nodded.

"Okay, I guess we could wait," Ranma shrugged, "However, just in case, I'm

gonna steal some adamantium anyway. For all we know, this could be a better

plan. I'm not gonna take any chances of going to Antarctica and suddenly find

out the vibranium had been moved and realized I'm back at square one,"

"But it's most likely easier to just wait," Beast said.

"It might, but it doesn't hurt to be safe than sorry," Ranma said, "We have

here an opportunity to get adamantium. I'm not gonna pass up on that

opportunity. That's just stupid,"

"But we don't need to take it," Cyclops said.

"So?" Ranma said, "It might come in handy. And no offense, considering how

close we were to getting the vibranium only to lose it because you wanted us to

wait back then during the auction, why would I want let that opportunity slip by

me again? I'm just thinking ahead, just in case,"

Everyone looked toward Cyclops, wondering what he would say. Would Cyclops

allows something like that, for Ranma to blatantly steal adamantium when there

is no need.

"Fine. We'll all help you out," Cyclops said, gritting his teeth.

Ranma headed out of the room.

"Let's go gather some adamantium then,"

Everyone, even Asuka, carried bars of adamantium that Ranma broke from the

holding cells located on the level over to one corner of a large room.

Ranma just walked down the corridor breaking one adamantium bar after another,

handing it to the nearest person so they could carry it down the corridor to the

end of the floor where a pile was slowly forming.

Rogue stood next to him as Ranma continued to break the bars off and hand them

to her. She, being the strongest of the group, save for Ranma, could carry a lot

of weight so she hung around as bar after bar were piled up on extend arms.

"Are y'sure that we're gonna be all right?" Rogue asked, "Ah do trust you that

you can get us out of here, but we've got over a dozen levels above us brimmin'

with loose criminals that we've gotta fight through,"

"Don't worry about it, trust me," Ranma smiled.

"And not jus' mutants either," Rogue continued on, "There're non-mutants

criminals as well, like ol' Juggernaut. For people whose power can't be

suppressed, they're very dangerous in 'ere, 'specially in a place like this

where there're confined spaces and we aren't as free to maneuver around.

Th'adamantium bars're needed t'hold people like Juggernaut and non-mutants and

such,"

She sighed, "And mutants we hafta worry about as well. Even though they're

were wearin' those suppressors and can't get 'em off on their own, Ah'm sure

some of the non-mutants would be able t'remove those things for 'em,"

"Everything'll be okay," Ranma said softly, "Trust me,"

"Ah sure hope so," she said, blushing slightly. The way Ranma said those words

sounded so reassuring. The fact that he seemed completely at ease as he did his

business of ripping out adamantium bars, made her feel at ease.

"So, how's everything going?" Ranma asked.

"Huh?" Rogue asked.

"Hey, I'm just indulging in conversation at the moment," Ranma said, "We've

got a good ten minutes of looting adamantium before we head out,"

"Oh," she said, "Um, everything's fine Ah guess. Thanks fer helping spring

Jean and I outta here,"

"No prob," Ranma said.

"Ah know I'm seeing it, but Ah'm still havein' trouble believing it," Rogue

commented, "You're actually breaking adamantium bars with your bare hands,"

Ranma chuckled, "Oh, that, well, it's nothing. God-powers are handy with stuff

like this,"

"Do ya even have trouble breaking those?" Rogue had to ask, "Ah don't even see

you straining to break 'em,"

Ranma shook his head, "Trouble, nope, not one bit,"

"What d'ya have planned?" Rogue asked, "The curiosity's killin' me,"

"It'll be a surprise," Ranma grinned.

"The plan's real simple," Ranma said, "First we're gonna gather as much

adamantium as you guys can carry,"

"That Ah'm aware of," Rogue nodded, "But what are we to do after we collect

enough?"

"We're deep underground and inside a mountain," Ranma said, "I'm having you

guys gather all the stuff near the end of this level because I plan on digging

us a tunnel from where we are to the surface through the entire mountain,"

Rogue dropped the bars from shock, "Dig us a tunnel from here to the surface?"

Ranma nodded, "Yep. I'll just angle it upward so that you'll eventually end up

on the surface a good distance away from where the entrance is,"

"We're like, a couple hundred feet underground," Rogue said, "You can do that,

dig us a hole all the way to the surface?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, proceeding to rip out more adamantium bars, "It's not that

hard,"

"Man, Ah can't wait to see that," she commented.

Ranma decided that he had broken off more than enough bars of admantium.

"All right, I think we have enough, let's get outta this place," he said.

Together, the two of them headed down the hallway toward where the group and

been piling up all those broken bars. Several of them were coming down the

hallway to help out, finished with dropping off the bars they had been carried.

When everyone found themselves gathered around the stockpile, they turned

their attention toward Ranma.

"Well, it seems like we have enough," Ranma said, "More than enough

actually,"

"So, what do we do from here?" Cyclops asked.

Ranma walked over toward the wall and jammed his fingers into it wall the way

up to his elbow. He did the exact same for his other arm. He then stepped

backwards and pulled out a huge chunk of the adamantium wall right out.

Everyone just stared in disbelief as Ranma went about ripping a hole into the

wall, breaking through to the other side which was nothing but dirt. When Ranma

was done, they fount themselves staring at a wall of dirt through an opening

about six feet in diameter in the adamantium wall.

"Okay, I thought seeing you snap those bars of adamantium was amazing, but

this is definitely more amazing," Jean commented, "You just broke through, what,

a foot worth of adamantium, with your bare hands,"

Ranma smiled, turning toward a group and gesturing toward the wall of dirt

behind him, "This is going to be how you guys get out. We're gonna dig our way

out,"

"Dig our way out?" everyone was shocked.

"This is crazy!" Cyclops said, "This was your plan, for us to dig our way

out? There's got to be several hundred yards of mountain between where we are

and the surface!"

Ranma turned toward the dirt wall in front of him and extended a hand toward

it. He kept his hand at a slight upward angle.

He let loose a massive ki-blast from his hand. The group shielded their eyes

from the brilliance as a spherical ki-blast erupted from his extended hand and

entered the dirt way, incinerating it. It kept traveling forward through the

dirt, incinerating everything in its forward path. It kept traveling forward and

upward until it incinerated its path all the way to the surface.

Everyone was dead silent, shocked at what they had seen.

Ranma said, "Well, what are you guys waiting for, the coast is clear,"

Beast stepped forward and looked into the circular tunnel. He noticed that the

tunnel seemed to stretch forward perfectly straight for about half a mile. On

the other end of that tunnel he saw a small glimpse of daylight.

"Well I'll be, I can see the sunlight from here," Beast stated.

The whole group stepped forward to take a peek, shocked at what they saw when

they all realized they saw the blue sky at the other end of the tunnel.

"I can't believe it," Beast said, "With this tunnel, we don't even have to

worry about having to deal with any of the escaped criminals running around on

the levels above us,"

Ranma grinned, "That's the plan,"

"This is great," Beast said, proceeding to pick up a handful of adamantium

bars and entering the tunnel, "I don't think our escape could possible be any

easier. I'll lead the way,"

"Ranma, yer so awesome Ah can jus' kiss you," Rogue smiled warmly, actually

contemplating doing so. Sure, she had been angry at him quite a bit, but after

seeing the things he can do and have done to help her and Jean out, there was no

way she could stay angry at him.

Asuka narrowed her eyes toward Rogue's back as she went about picking up more

than half of the adamantium bars in the stockpile before disappearing into the

tunnel.

"That was amazing," Jean smiled.

"So amazing you could kiss me?" Ranma smiled.

"Not quite," Jean said. She went about using her telekinesis to levitate quite

a bit of bars and headed for the tunnel.

Ranma laughed. When he caught Cyclops glaring at him, Ranma flipped him the

middle finger.

"W-what was that for?" Cyclops was offend.

"Just cause," Ranma said, "Actually, think of it as my comment toward you on

your reaction when you heard my plan,"

Cyclops gritted his teeth for a moment.

"I'm sorry," Cyclops said after second, "I was wrong. I shouldn'tve doubted

your plan. Good job,"

Cyclops went about picking up a handful of adamantium bars and disappeared

into the tunnel.

"Fuck!" Ranma muttered, "Why'd he hafta be all like diplomatic that? Now I

hafta like him again or I'll feel bad messing with him after he apologized,"

Logan chuckled, "It's never stopped me from feeling bad,"

"That goes without saying," Ranma said, "I wouldn't expect you any other way,"

The two of them chuckled.

Logan went to the stockpile and picked the remaining adamantium bars, throwing

them over his shoulder. He noticed Asuka looking about wanting to be helpful. He

knew that Asuka was currently feeling a bit inadequate since she was the only

human of the group with human abilities.

"Hey, kid," Logan held forward an adamantium bar, the half bar that Ranma

broken specifically for her carry from the cell to the stockpile before.

Asuka looked at the bar, a bit confused.

"What, you think I'm gonna carry all of this?" Logan said with a gruff voice,

"I don't think so,"

"Okay," Asuka smiled as she accepted the bar and headed into the tunnel.

Ranma and Logan were now alone.

"You're good guy, Logan," Ranma smirked.

"No, I'm not," Logan said, "And dontcha forget,"

"Whatever," Ranma said, "Tell the others I'll be topside shortly. I'm gonna

close the tunnel behind you and go out through the front door,"

"You're not comin' with us?" Logan asked.

Ranma jerked a thumb behind him, "I caused all of this, so I'm gonna fix it,"

Logan shrugged, "Suit yourself. I'll tell the others,"

"Before y'go, give me one bar," Ranma said.

Logan threw him one of the bars he was carrying.

"Thanks," Ranma said.

After Logan disappeared into the tunnel, Ranma picked up the chunks of

adamantium that he had ripped from the wall and placed them back over the

tunnel. Once they were in place, Ranma used the bar to jam in through the floor

and bent it so that it held the chunks in place. That way, no criminal could

escape out through the opening now that it was sealed again.

Satisfied with knowing that the group was now safely on their way to the

surface, Ranma headed toward the stairs located on the other side of the floor

to head topside.

He grinned.

"Time for some fun,"

Ranma emerged from The Vault and out into the open, carrying in his arms

several bars of adamantium.

"Freeze!" he heard voices shout at him, weapons trained on him.

Looking around, he noticed several armored transport vehicles sitting in the

middle of the road. There were around eight heavily armored individuals sporting

golden battlesuits that kind of reminded him of Juggernaut. The only difference

was they seemed much smaller than Juggernaut. Little did Ranma know that those

were Mandroid Battlesuits, heavier, more powerful versions of the Guardsman

Armor designed to fight super powered beings.

"Hello," Ranma waved a hand.

He looked around and noticed several unconscious individuals lying by the

front of the entrance, one of the Juggernaut. It seemed like they had tried

escaping but had been taken down the moment they stepped out of The Vault.

He assumed that the half-hour that he and the group had spent making their way

into The Vault and searching for Jean and Rogue and gave response teams enough

time to mobilize and get there. When the criminals were let loose shortly

afterwards, thanks to Ranma's mistake, teams had already been assembled to deal

with whatever came out of the entrance.

He looked around and saw three costumed individuals standing among them. He

had no idea who they were, but their costumes definitely stood out among the

group of people sporting Mandroid Battlesuits. Little did Ranma know that the

three individuals were Captain American, Iron Man, and Thor. They were three

members of a team called Avengers that made it there as fast as possible, more

team members were on the way.

The first man sported a blue outfit skin-tight outfit that covered most of his

head and face with red and white vertical stripes around his stomach and a white

star on his chest. He had a red boots and gloves and carried a round red, white,

and blue shield, a white star on the shield. Little did Ranma know that that man

was Captain America.

"Heh, he must be really patriotic," Ranma assumed those colors represented the

colors of the American flag. Ranma decided to label him as 'The Spandex Patriot'

The second man, was a large man with long blond hair sported a red caps with a

metallic winged helmet. Ranma noticed the carried this mallet in one hand which

reminded him of Akane for some reason. Little did Ranma know that that man was

Thor. Ranma labeled that man as 'The Hammer-Holding Dude'

The third person, if it was a person, looked like a red and gold robot. It

reminded Ranma a bit of those Guardsman he fought earlier. Heck, it kind of

reminded him of those Mandroid Battlesuits. It made him wonder if that red and

yellow robot was some kind of boomer or a man in an armored suit. Ranma assumed

the latter. Little did Ranma know that that man was known as Iron Man. Ranma

labeled the man, 'The Robot Guy'

Ranma didn't really care who those people were and had no intention of getting

to know them.

Realizing that the entrance to The Vault was wide open behind him and that

criminals were still on the loose inside, a good deal of them unconscious thanks

to Ranma's intervention, there was a chance some could escape if everyone rushed

out at once.

"Hm, I better put you back inside," Ranma said as he gently leaned his

adamantium bars on the wall next to the entrance as he walked forward toward

Juggernaut.

"Freeze!" he heard a voice from one of the people wearing those Mandroid

Battlesuits.

"Don't move and you won't get hurt!" The Spandex Patriot said.

Ranma ignored the voice and grabbed one of Juggernaut's ankles. He turned

around and dragged him back toward the entrance, throwing him into The Vault

like a rag doll.

He turned back around and walked over to the few other incapacitated criminals

and grabbed their ankles, dragging them toward the entrance where he tossed them

through the open entrance.

When every criminal was now behind the entrance, Ranma reached out and grabbed

the few adamantium bars he had and stuck them vertically into the ground, lining

them between one side of the entrance to the other side. That way, criminals

would not be able to slip out through the small gaps between vertical bars. The

bars were tall enough that there was no way they could slip out between the

small gap between the top of the bar and the ceiling.

Little did Ranma know that the bars, although impervious, could easily be

bypassed by criminals within The Vault that was capable of changing their shape

and slipping out from between the gaps.

Even if that was the case, it was the thought that counts. That was what

mattered to Ranma. Besides, there were response teams just outside the entrance

ready to take care of any criminal foolish enough to try and escape.

As Ranma did this, the man named Thor turned his attention Captain America.

"That guy...he looks really familiar," Thor stated.

Captain America said, "I don't recognize him. Where might you know him from?"

Thor scratched his chin, "I'm not too sure. I can help but feel this presence

to that man. There's this weird aura to him that seems familiar,"

Captain America regarded Ranma for a moment, wondering what the man was up to.

After a moment, recognition dawned on him.

"I recognize him," Captain America stated, "He's the guy that saved all those

children on television,"

Thor regarded Ranma for a moment, "You know what, you're right. But what's

strange is that I think I know him from somewhere else. I can't quite put my

finger on it,"

Ranma noticed The Spandex Patriot step forward from the group. He cautiously

approached Ranma and stopped a short distance away from him.

"You're the guy from television, that saved all those children," Captain

America stated.

Ranma didn't understand what that man said, unable to discern English. This

was because Ranma's headset device had been broken. Ranma had fought every

single criminal that had been unlucky enough to cross his path and attack him.

One criminal had actually managed to use his powers well enough to damage

Ranma's headset device before he was incapacitate.

"Sorry, Mr. Spandex Patriot, but I can't understand what you're talking

about," Ranma said in Japanese, "I don't know who are your friends are, and

frankly, I don't care. I've got someone expecting me,"

Ranma grinned.

He straight toward Captain America, the sudden motion causing the man to

instinctively bring his shield up in front of him, bracing for an attack.

However, he realized that no attack came as peeked up from behind his shield and

caught sight of Ranma sailing over his head as he leaped over the entire group

of Avengers and Mandroid Battlesuits. When he landed behind them, he broke out

in a sprint down the road.

"He's escaping!" Captain America said.

"We'll get him," Thor and Iron Man said as they took to the skies to give

chase.

Captain America stayed here he was, wanting to wait around while the other

team members arrived. He needed to be there, in case any of the criminals broke

out.

He glanced toward the entrance where he saw those vertical bars sticking up

from the ground. He didn't really know what that man had done what he had done,

but from the looks of things, it seemed as if he done so to prevent anyone from

getting out or in.

Captain America walked toward the entrance to inspect the bars, wondering

where they came from. He glanced toward the top of the bars and noticed they

looked like they had been broken off from something but he wasn't too sure what.

Wanting to inspect the bars, he reached out and tapped it. It didn't vibrate

or make any noise.

"What the?" Captain America said.

He removed one of his gloves and touched it with his hand. When he touched it,

his eyes widened in absolute shock. It was made of the same material as his

shield, adamantium.

"My God! This stuff is adamantium!"

Storm and the others greeted emerged from the Blackbird to greet the group as

they emerged into the opening where the plane had landed. The plane was at the

second rendezvous point and very far away from The Vault.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you guys got out of there!" Storm said in

disbelief, "Almost an entire army has been mobilized. I didn't think you guys

would have made it out in time,"

Jean said, "You won't believe what happened if we told you,"

"What are those?" Storm asked, noticing that everyone was carrying long

metallic bars.

"Adamantium bars," Rogue answered, "Y'know where it came from? Well, didja

know Ranma can break adamantium with his bare hands? We sure didn't but he did.

With his bare hands! These bars used to be the bars to the holding cells in the

facility,"

"What?" Nightcrawler, Storm, and Psylocke said in unison.

Cyclops said, "We don't believe it ourselves, but we saw it. Ranma can break

adamantium. He doesn't even strain with breaking it. He broke these bars like

they were twigs,"

"And let's not forget the fact that he broke through an adamantium wall around

foot think and shot some kinda energy blast right through a mountain,"

"What?" Nightcrawler, Storm, and Psylocke said in unison again.

"You won't believe what Ranma did down in The Vault," Jean said, "Ranma

basically defeated all the Guardsman, all thirty-five of them. He broke us out

of our adamantium holding cell with his bare hands. He basically accidentally

broke the facility's computer control system, letting free every criminal The

Vault was housing at the time. Instead of us fighting our way out, he broke

through an adamantium wall and made us a tunnel about a half-mile long to the

surface right through the mountain,"

"Don't forget t'add the fact that after we got into the tunnel he made, he

closed himself back inside the facility where he, as Logan told us, wanted

t'fight his way out," Rogue stated.

"My god! He's fighting his way out? Do you know what he's up against?"

Psylocke said, "We intercepted a communication about The Vault and we heard that

the Avengers and Fantastic Four had responded and were on their way. This

happened about a half hour ago, around the time when you first started attacking

The Vault,"

"The Avengers and Fantastic Four were on their way?" Beast said, "Ranma's

probably still fighting inside the facility. If that's the case, they'll be

waiting for him when he gets out,"

"Well, what should we do?" several members asked Cyclops.

Cyclops seemed deep in thought.

"You should leave him be," Logan said, sitting down in his seat, "Ranma can

take care of himself,"

"But the Avengers and Fantastic Four being there now complicates things,"

Cyclops said.

Logan smirked, "Like Ranma accidentally freein' all those criminals isn't

complicated? Frankly, I think Ranma can take care of himself and believe that

the Avengers and Fantastic Four are in for nasty surprise,"

Cyclops asked Asuka, "What do you think? You think Ranma will be okay?"

Asuka nodded confidently, "Yes, I do. I don't know about these Avengers and

Fantastic Four people, but Ranma will most likely be fine,"

Cyclops was silent for a moment before he said, "Fine, we'll wait here for

him,"

"Since all we can do is wait, perhaps you guys can give us all the details

about what exactly happened in The Vault," Storm said.

"It's a long story," Beast said.

Beast began explaining what happened starting from when they left the

Blackbird. Storm, Nightcrawler, and Psylocke listened intently as Beast

explained everything in detail. They asked many questions as to how Ranma did

this and that, Beast trying his best to answer them.

Around fifteen minutes into the explanation, they heard a crash through the

cockpit and thought the Blackbird was under attack. Cyclops rushed into the

cockpit, cursing himself for having gotten caught up in hearing Beast's story,

even though he had been there to experience it first hand, and not being alert

for anyone discovering the Blackbird.

He quickly looked around, expecting to see tear gas shooting out of the

canister than had broken through the cockpit window but saw nothing. This

confused him for a bit.

Looking over at the hole in the window, it looked like something had been

thrown through it. He walked over to it and looked outside and down toward the

ground below.

There, he caught sight of Ranma as he stood where he was waving his hands to

be noticed.

He looked down by Ranma's feet and noticed two unconscious individuals. It

only took a moment for Cyclops to recognize that they were Thor and Iron Man.

"What the?"

"Sorry about the window," Ranma said as he carried Thor and Iron Man slung

over each shoulder as he entered the Blackbird, "I wanted to get someone's

attention and accidentally threw a rock too hard,"

Ranma's broken headset device had been replaced by Asuka's own. Since she

understand English fairly well, she didn't need it as much as Ranma did.

No one seemed to really care about the fact that Ranma had probably done

thousands and thousands of dollars in damage to the Blackbird, all of them too

caught up with the situation on hand.

"How'd this happen?" Cyclops asked, looking down at the unconscious form of

two fellow comrade at arms. The two of them and the X-Men had allied themselves

on many occasion to fight common enemies and threats.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Sorry if I'm dumping this on you, but I didn't really

know what to do. They were attacking me so I knocked 'em out. I didn't want to

just leave them unconscious on the ground so I brought the back here with me.

Who are they?"

"They're friends of the X-Men," Beast said, "We've worked with the both of

them on several occasions. They're two members of the Avengers,"

"Who the heck are these two guys?" Ranma asked.

Beast nodded, gesturing, "That's Thor. And that's Iron Man,"

"Thor, huh?" Ranma smirked down at the unconscious man, "I'll remember that.

He's a really good fighter. When we fought, he just kept on coming after me and

never relented, no matter how many times I smacked him all over the place. He

just kept on getting up. He's got a really good fighting spirit. I like that,"

"So what happened then? How'd you defeat him?" Cyclops asked. Now that he

thought about it, fighting Thor was probably equivalent to fighting Magneto and

Juggernaut at the same time.

Ranma said, "What else, I beat him up. His friend, Iron Man is it, he wasn't

hard at all to beat. When Thor and I were fighting, Iron Man made a mistake

shooting at me with this laser that comes from his hand. He almost hit Thor.

Because he made a mistake, I realized he was human and not machine. I grabbed

him by the leg and swung him around a few times really hard. The G-forces that

were exerted on his body while I was swinging him around made him blackout,"

Asuka was crouching over Thor looking at his hammer. The hammer looked more

like a small iron mallet than a hammer. She noticed that there was a strap on

the handle that was wrapped around Thor's wrist, as if it was there as a

precaution should he lose his grip on the handle.

"This is a small weapon," Asuka commented, "What a weird weapon to use in a

fight,"

Wondering how much it weighed, she reached out and touched the handle and

tried to lift it. It didn't even budge.

"Wow, this thing weighs a ton," she said.

"That's the Hammer of Mjolnir, Thor's hammer," Beast said, "It's enchanted

which prevents basically anyone but him from being able to could lift it. It has

something to do with only someone considered 'worthy' to able to lift it. It's

said that only someone that seemed to be the epitome of valor and honor and

loyalty and battle prowess are worthy of lifting it,"

"Really?" Ranma said, "Cool. Heh, that must mean I'm 'worthy' then,"

"Y-you lifted the hammer?" Beast asked in surprise. Ranma was so full of

surprised that Beast should expect that, but for some reason, he can't.

Ranma nodded, "Not lifted, per say. He threw it toward me and I caught it. I

threw it back at him and knocked him out with it. It hit him in the chest. I

made sure I threw it really lightly so it wouldn't blow a hole through his

chest. And because I didn't know what to

do with the hammer, I decided I should take it with me. Unfortunately, I had no

place to strap it to myself so I simply strapped it onto Thor's wrist as I

carried him and his friend, Iron Man,"

He walked over to where Thor was slipped the strap on the handle of the hammer

free from Thor's wrist. He picked it and regarded it closely.

"Hee hee, I'm 'worthy' to hold the hammer," Ranma chuckled, swinging it around

in a circle over his head, "Man, ain't that a kick in the balls? Someone like me

epitomizing valor and honor and loyalty and whatever other shit you listed,"

Everyone seemed to be transfixed at watching Ranma swinging the hammer around.

After a moment, Ranma grew tired of swinging it around and stopped. He crouched

down and placed the hammer back in the Thor's unconscious hands.

"What's so special about that hammer?" Ranma asked, "Besides it being

enchanted or something so not anyone can lift it? Didn't you mention something

about 'Thor's Hammer' denting something?"

There was a moment of silence as everyone seemed to be still in the process of

letting the sight of Ranma lifting the hammer sink in.

Beast composed himself and said, "Yes. I mentioned that the hammer Thor used

dented Captain America's shield, which is made of adamantium,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Captain America's shield, huh? Hm, I wonder if I

saw Captain America before. I think I saw him with Iron Man and Thor when I

emerged from The Vault,"

"You did?" Beast asked.

"I don't know if it's him, but he wore red, white, and blue," Ranma said, "He

wore mostly blue and had vertical red and white strips on his stomach. He wore

red boots and gloves and had this round shield with a star on it,"

Beast said, "That's Captain America all right. Your description fits him to a

T,"

"Captain America's shield is made of adamantium, huh?" Ranma asked, "If the

hammer dented it, that means it's stronger than adamantium?"

Beast nodded, "Yes,"

"Interesting," Ranma said, "I thought adamantium was the strongest material in

existence. If the hammer is stronger, wouldn't that mean the material that makes

it up is stronger?"

Beast said, "The hammer is enchanted. It's completely different properties.

It's similar to Juggernaut. Juggernaut has some kind of enchanted strength that

makes him basically physically stronger than almost everyone. But if you remove

that enchantment, he's actually no stronger than a normal human being, perhaps a

bit stronger, but not much more. But if you take Thor's strength, his is

different. His strength is always there. Juggernaut's strength is different

because it's basically bestowed strength,"

"Oh, I understand," Ranma said.

He glanced down at Iron Man.

"Let's take his mask off. I wanna see what he looks like," Ranma

Rogue looked down at Iron Man and Thor, "What are we going to do with these

two?"

"Let's kill them," Ranma chuckled.

"Let's not," Cyclops said in a serious voice.

"Ranma, how long do you think they'll be knocked out?" Beast asked.

Ranma said, "They should be getting up in a few minutes. I didn't hit either

of them that hard,"

Beast suggested, "Maybe we should wait until they wake up and talk to them and

explain what had happened,"

"I think we should just chuck them out the door," Ranma shrugged, "They'll

wake up confused and all, but who cares,"

Cyclops said, "I'm going to have to agree on Ranma with this one. That way, no

one will know of the X-Men's involvement in everything. Even though they are our

friends, the less people knowing about what really happened, the better,"

Ranma smirked, "See? Even Mr. Tight-Ass here agrees,"

"Mr. Tight-Ass?" Cyclops asked.

"Y'know what I mean," Ranma waved a hand, "Sometimes you can be so tight-assed

that you'd shit diamonds if someone shoved a coal up your ass,"

Logan snickered. Cyclops glared toward Ranma.

"Your comments are wearing thin, Ranma," Cyclops said coldly.

Ranma smiled. He reached over and grabbed Thor's hammer.

"Y'know what I wonder?" Ranma grinned, "What would happen if I knock you to

the ground and rest this hammer on top your chest. Since no one can seem to lift

it off, doesn't that mean you're basically screwed?"

"You wouldn't," Jean said.

Ranma remembered Cyclops' comment about his plan on getting out of The Vault

and his genuine apology for misjudging him.

"No, I wouldn't," Ranma said with a sigh, placing the hammer down by Thor

again, wrapping the strap around his wrist again.

"Well, if we're going to drop them off, I guess we should leave them here,"

Beast suggested, "It's not like we have to worry about animals or such getting

to them while they're unconscious. And besides, you said they would be getting

up in a few minutes anyway, right?"

Ranma nodded.

"Let's just leave them here, then," Cyclops said.

"I'll carry them outside," Ranma picked up Thor and Iron Man by the back of

their outfits with one hand each. Iron Man's battle suit had a small latch

around the neck that allowed him to do so.

"Ranma, don't man-handle Them like that, they're our friends," Cyclops told

him in a stern voice.

Ranma turned toward Cyclops, "Man-handle, huh? Fine,"

To Cyclops' surprise, he flipped Thor and Iron Man up and over his shoulders.

Although the way he carried them was not much gentler than when they were being

carried by the back of their outfit, it was a bit of an improvement and the fact

that Ranma listened to Cyclops surprised him.

After a minute, Ranma entered the cabin.

"Well, let's get going," Ranma said, smiling.

Cyclops asked, "Where'd you drop them off?"

"Out behind the plane, why?" Ranma asked.

"That's where the plane's engines are," Cyclops said, "They're going to get

cooked by our afterburners if we took off,"

Ranma scratched his head, "You think so? They look pretty tough. A little

afterburners to the face shouldn't do them any harm,"

"That's besides the point!"

"Man, Ah'm glad that mess's over with," Rogue commented, stretching her arms

as she exited the Blackbird and into the hanger bay located deep underneath the

Xavier school.

The trip back had been slow but uneventful. They would had arrived back sooner

had Ranma not broken the window in the cockpit which made super-sonic travel

impossible without risking having the cockpit compartment's ceiling ripped open

by winds entering through the opening.

It was around evening when the group finally got back safe and in one piece.

"Let's go eat," Ranma said, "I'm hungry,"

"How can you get hungry?" Asuka asked, "You don't need food,"

"Okay, I'm in the mood to eat," Ranma corrected himself, "Is that better?

Where do y'wanna eat? At a diner? At a fancy restaurant?"

Cyclops turned toward Ranma, "Why don't you eat here with us? In the

cafeteria. We can eat together, in celebration to a job well done,"

"Dontcha mean in celebration to a fuck up that was fixed up?" Ranma chuckled,

"If y'think of it, none of this woulda happened had you guys decided to not drop

Juggernaut off at The Vault and Jean and Rogue getting captured,"

"So you're saying it's our fault?" Jean asked him.

Ranma scratched at his chin, "But then again, it's all good. Had this not

happened, we wouldn'tve gotten any adamantium. I guess things turned out for the

better. No criminals escaped and no one knows the X-Men attacked The Vault,"

"In the end, things turned out better than before," Jean stated, not feeling

so bad that she and Rogue had gotten captured in the first place.

"Yeah," Ranma grinned, "Had we not gotten the adamantium, this could've been a

huge story arc that could've been avoided,"

"Huh?" everyone looked at Ranma.

Ranma waved a hand, "Nevermind,"

Cyclops turned toward Asuka, "Your friend says weird stuff,"

"He says weird stuff all the time," Asuka said, "I've given up trying to

understand some of the stuff he says. I think he sometimes makes comments that

only he could understand,"

"Okay," Cyclops said.

Ranma turned toward placed his arms around Rogue and Jean, "Thanks to you

guys, we now have adamantium. Sure, we've got this problem with finding that

Molecular Rearranger thingie, but at least having adamantium means we're one

step closer to our goal,"

"Um, no problem," Rogue said, feeling Ranma's closeness.

"You mind?" Jean said, uncomfortable with Ranma being so familiar with her.

She was a married woman, afterall.

Ranma spanked both Jean's and Rogue's butt, "Good job in getting caught,

girls,"

Both girls yelped in surprise, not expecting like that to happen.

"That's my wife you're touching there!" Cyclops sneered toward him.

"Dude, it's just a friendly slap," Ranma said, "It's not like pulled down her

pants and I boned her from behind or something,"

"Ranma!" Asuka shouted, shocked at Ranma's vulgarity.

Jean blushed a terrific shade of red, her cheeks becoming almost the same

fiery color of her hair.

"Ranma!" Cyclops felt the urge to shoot an optic blast at Ranma.

Ranma turned toward Cyclops and smiled, "All right, let's rock,"

He extended a hand forward toward Cyclops and shot a ki-blast from his hands,

hitting Cyclops right in the chest, sending him flying backwards several dozen

yards through the air where he landed hard on his back, sliding across the

hanger bay where he came to a halt.

Cyclops had this shocked look on his face as he found himself staring up at

the ceiling of the hanger bay, so easily defeated. Aside from feeling a bit

tender around his back area, he was unhurt. Sparring sessions hurt more. What

hurt most was his pride.

"Don't worry, that ki-blast was weak enough that it'll just send you flying,"

Ranma said, "It's the landing that hurts,"

"I-I can't believe you did that!" Asuka shouted toward Ranma, "You could've

killed him,"

Ranma shook his head, "Didntja hear what I said? I made my ki-blasts weak

enough just send him flying. I now know how tough Cyclops is when I saw him

fight along side me when we were making our way through The Vault. I realized he

could take a good beating, so from now on, I'm gonna actually fight back,"

Cyclops got up to his feet, a bit angry, but smiling as well.

"I'm gonna go eat," Ranma began walking off.

Asuka and Jean rushed by to where Cyclops was.

"Are you okay?" Jean asked, concerned. She glared toward Ranma's back. What

should wouldn't do right now to be able to use telekinesis on him to send some

heavy object hurtling at his head.

Cyclops nodded, "I'm fine. Actually, I feel better than normal. He actually

attacked me. It frustrated me that he never attacks me and uses those damn sleep

pressure points,"

"It seems like you're on his good side now," Asuka commented.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"If Ranma fights you, that means he respects you," Asuka said.

Cyclops asked, "What, you mean he never respected me until now?"

Asuka shook his head, "No, not like that. It means he respects you as a

fighter. He won't dismiss you anymore,"

"Oh," Cyclops said. He kind of liked that. It really annoyed him when Ranma

just dismissed him and just put him to sleep.

"Of course, now that he won't dismiss you, he'll actually hit you," Asuka gave

a shy smile.

Cyclops chuckled, "You'll hear no complaints from me. I'd rather it be like

that,"

He headed down the hanger bay toward the elevators.

Jean and Asuka looked at each other.

"I think it's a guy thing," Asuka giggled, "It seems like Cyclops and Ranma

are starting to get along, in a weird kinda way though,"

Jean smiled. She was used to this. Logan and Cyclops were much the same way.

Now it seemed to be the case with Ranma and Cyclops. As with Logan and Ranma,

she knew the two of them got along by the way they argued with one another.

"Finally, it's about time Cyclops and Ranma started getting along,"

new stuff 8/3

Everyone stared as Ranma seemed to be a bottomless pit, scarfing down what was

probably his thirtieth hotdog. Everyone was outside in the back of the school,

gathered around a gigantic brick grill. There was a large bench nearby where

most of the people were gathering. The only two people that weren't sitting down

was Ranma and Logan.

Logan had volunteered to barbeque and was starting to get annoyed at how much

Ranma was eating. He was tempted to just let Ranma barbeque for himself since he

was eating more than the entire group combined.

"How many more hot dogs are y'gonna eat, bub?" Logan sneered, "I'm getting'

really pissed cooking only for you,"

"Ten more," Ranma said, "Hey, what can I say, you make a mean hot dog,"

"I'm makin' five more," Logan said, "Yer attempt at flatterin' me into making

you more won't work,"

Ranma laughed, "Fine, whatever. I don't mind five more,"

Logan threw five hot dogs on the grill as he turned his attention onto the

dozen steaks that were just about done. He proceeded to flip each one over one

last time. It would be done in ten minutes from now.

Several members had eaten a hot dog or two but chose to not eat and save their

appetite for Logan's steak.

Beast and Cyclops and Nightcrawler approached the grill, eager to eat.

"Looks good," Cyclops commented.

"It'll taste even better," Logan smirked.

"That looks real juicy," Beast grabbed a pair of prongs and speared the piece

of steak at the corner of the grill, "I think mine's ready,"

Logan's claws shot out and pointed toward Beast's face, "It's not ready,"

Beast put the steak back in its place, "Touchy today,"

"I think Logan's on his period," Ranma commented.

The group save for Logan laughed.

Meanwhile back at the table, Asuka giggled as she realized something.

"What's so funny?" Rogue asked curiously.

"Remember what I said about how guys like to grill?" Asuka said, "They like to

cook if there's danger involved,"

The group of females broke out in laughter. This prompted the group of guys to

turned toward them to inquire as to what was so funny.

"Oh nothing," Jean said on all their behalf before resuming to talking with

her group.

"There're probably talking about us," Ranma said, "Whenever a group of four or

more girls get together, they talk about guys. And what do a group of four or

more guys talk about when they get together?"

They all looked at one another.

"Sports," they said in unison before breaking out in laughter.

"What's so funny?" Psylocke asked the group.

"Nothing," Ranma answered, waving a hand, "Go on and talk about guys like all

groups of girls do when they're together,"

The girls looked at one another. They found it rather strange how well Ranma

knew them without actually knowing them.

"We were not!" Asuka lied, standing up.

"Right," Ranma chuckled, "If you weren't and can prove it, I'll do whatever

you say for a year,"

Asuka's lips became and thin line before she snorted in annoyance and sat back

down.

Cyclops smirked, "You seem pretty confident you know how women act,"

"Yep," Ranma smirked, "Women are pretty simple to understand,"

The group looked at one another. At that point in time, they realized Ranma

was nuts. For someone to make a claim like had to be crazy.

"I think you're wrong, Ranma," Cyclops said, "There have been books written

about them and how their mind works. Every woman thinks differently. To date, it

took me over a month to figure out what all those times on her dresser drawer

are. They're hard to understand,"

"Wanna bet?" Ranma smirked at Cyclops.

"What do you mean?" he asked, feeling challenged.

"I can prove to you that women are easy to understand," Ranma smiled

confidently, "You named the challenge and I'll take you up on it,"

"A challenge?" Cyclops said.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. You name the challenge. I name the stakes,"

Cyclops regarded him for a moment. He then smiled as he thought of a good

challenge.

"Okay, what are the stakes?" Cyclops was up to the challenge.

"You name the challenge. If you win, I'll buy you a six-pack of beer," Ranma

grinned.

"And if you win?" Cyclops asked.

"You join me in a, shall we say, little adventure," Ranma said.

"An adventure? Like what?" Cyclops asked.

Logan and Beast looked at one another. No way, they seemed to silently

communicate to one another.

"You'll find out afterwards," Ranma said, "So, do we have a deal?"

Cyclops thought about it for a moment, curious as to what little adventure it

might be. Could it be to go to a bar and start a bar fight? That sounded like

something Logan would come up with. But what about Ranma? What would he make

Cyclops do?

"Well?" Ranma asked, "Ya up to the wager?"

"Make it if I win, two six-packs and no more unnecessary smacking or grouping

of or making sexist comments to my wife and we have a deal," Cyclops said. He

wanted the twelve pack because he would share his beer with Ranma. That way,

with a gesture like that, they would get along better.

Ranma smirked, "Gee, ain't you the chivalrous person, fending for Jean's honor

while you're at it. Fine, deal,"

"Deal," Cyclops said.

"So, what's the challenge?" Ranma asked.

Grinning, Cyclops jerked a thumb toward the group, "Find out the girls'

bodyweight and measurements,"

He wanted to show Ranma that he wasn't so 'tight-ass' as he believed. He could

be a regular guy just like the rest of them. It was his position as the leader

of the X-Men that made him have to be more of a 'tight-ass' than the others.

Ranma smiled, "That's it?"

"Without doing that stuff where you look into their eyes to get the

information," Cyclops added, "I remember you reading Logan's mind or soul as you

put it just by looking into his eyes. That's too easy if you do that,"

Ranma didn't say anything.

Cyclops smirked, already expecting the win, "I like Newcastle beer,"

Ranma laughed confidently, "Ha, you think you've won? You're in for a

surprise,"

Cyclops was a bit surprised at how confident Ranma could be. Getting a woman

to reveal her bodyweight was basically an impossible task. Getting her to giver

her measurements was just as impossible. Getting her to reveal both was doubly

impossible.

"I'll have that information before those steaks are done cooking," Ranma

jerked a thumb toward the grill.

Cyclops and the others watched as Ranma walked over to the group of girls and

sat down among them. They looked a bit miffed at Ranma for that sexist comment

about how women of four or more talking about guys, but they didn't seem that

angry.

He sat down between Rogue and Jean and started talking to the group as a

whole. After a minutes, the group of girls started laughing, most likely at a

joke he had made. That seemed to have instantly removed whatever tension there

was between him and the girls. Some more talking led to more laughing, the girls

even finding themselves having to wipe the tears from their eyes.

They even noticed Rogue and Psylocke giving Ranma a playful punch in his

shoulders as they laughed loudly. Storm, who didn't laugh quite as much as the

rest of the group, even found herself laughing uncontrollably, so much so that

she actually had to hold her sides from the pain.

"How's Ranma making them laugh like that?" Beast asked. He knew he would be

asking Ranma for some women tips. Perhaps he would teach Ranma about computers

while Ranma taught him about women. It wasn't as if Beast was bad with dealing

with women, far from it. It was just that Ranma seemed to be MUCH better with

dealing with them and could probably teach him some thing.

Logan smirked, "Seems like th'girls are no longer angry at him for all the

things he's said in the War Room this morning during that male-versus-females

debate,"

"What?" Cyclops and Nightcrawler asked.

"You two weren't around," Beast said, "Ranma was spouting lots sexist comments

about females in general and all the girls got really angry at him. From the

looks of things, I think they've all forgotten about what happened,"

"Sounds like a very heated debate," Cyclops commented.

Logan smirked, "It probably wouldn'tve been as amusing had you been there,"

Cyclops turned toward Logan, "What do you mean by that?"

"You'dve pro'bly played mediator or somethin' and tried to get the groups to

come to some kinda truce instead of just stay back and watch the fireworks,"

Logan said.

Cyclops said nothing. He did tend to play mediator, didn't he?

Logan turned toward the steaks and touched it with the prongs he had in his

hands.

"Hm, almost done, just a few more minutes," Logan said, "Heh, let's see if

Ranma's as good as he claims,"

"I wonder if Ranma can do it," Beast was very eager to find out.

After a couple of minutes, Ranma got up from the table and approached the

group standing by the grill, a big grin on his face.

"Don't tell me they actually told you," Beast said in disbelief.

Ranma nodded, "Yep,"

The spouted off the bodyweight and measurements of all the girls that had been

sitting at the table. They didn't seem to mind Ranma revealing their personal

information to the others, too busy talking amongst themselves.

Cyclops and the others looked at one another, wondering if the numbers Ranma

was giving them were correct.

"Well? Whatcha think?" Ranma smiled, "Am I right?"

The group turned toward, a bit embarrassed.

Cyclops said, "Um, we really don't know if they're right or not. None of us

knew their bodyweight or measurements in the first place,"

Ranma slapped his forehead, "Morons!"

"I can find out," Beast said, "Our database has records from their physicals.

I can check to confirm it,"

"Cool," Ranma said, "Oh, for their bodyweight, add five pounds to whatever

numbers I said, girls always give a lighter bodyweight than their actual

weight,"

Cyclops said, "Okay, Ranma, let's just say that you did win the challenge,

which we have not determined yet..."

"What's this little adventure we'll be going on?" Ranma finished for him.

Cyclops nodded, "Yes. What's this little adventures we'll be undertaking?"

Ranma grinned.

"You're gonna help me find out what kinda panties Storm wears,"

Cyclops nervous stood behind Beast as he typed at the computer screen inside

the War Room. He inwardly hoped that the numbers Ranma had given were wrong.

Ranma and Logan were in the Danger Room at the moment, actually sparring

against one another. Because Ranma was aware of just how tough Logan was, what

with them fighting along side one another during their attack on The Vault, he

was no longer worried about really hurting Logan. That mean Ranma, although he

would hold be a considerable amount, could actually fight back and hit Logan and

try and knock him out.

After a few minutes of typing, Beast said, "Found it,"

Cyclops looked over Beast's shoulder. He couldn't believe he was doing this.

He was looking at the personal medical profiles of fellow female X-Men teammates

to confirm on some stupid wager he had made with Ranma.

After a bit of scanning, Beast said, "It seems like Ranma really did get those

numbers,"

Cyclops felt the blood drain from his face, "I can't believe Ranma actually

won that challenge. Do you have any idea what he wants me to do?"

"All too much," Beast said, sympathizing with the X-Men leader since he

himself had gone through very much the same thing.

"What do you mean?" Cyclops asked, "How can you know? This is, like,

perversion,"

Beast gave a shy smile.

"I can't go through with this," Cyclops said, "I'm going to call it off,"

Beast said, "That seems like the prudent choice. Ranma won't like it though,

not one bit,"

Cyclops had earned Ranma's respect and now he was going to lose it by backing

out of his end of the bargain. Whatever respect he earned would be down the

tubes. It wasn't that Cyclops wanted Ranma's respect. It was just that he

believed they were starting to get along better.

"What do you think I should do?" Cyclops asked, needing a suggestion. He had

never been in a situation like this and had no idea how to deal with it.

Beast shrugged, "It's up to you. It's probably better to go along with the

plan,"

"But his plan is to steal Storm's underwear!" Cyclops said, "Do you know what

he's asking of me?"

"No, it's to find out what kind she wears," Beast said, "He doesn't want you

to steal it. He just wants you to find out what kind she wears,"

"Why?" Cyclops said, "Why does he want to find out?"

Beast didn't bother answering, choosing to shrug in ignorance instead.

"I never realized Ranma was so...perverted," Cyclops said.

"Um, neither did I," Beast said.

Cyclops walked over to the window and looked into the Danger Room where he saw

Ranma kick Logan in the chest, sending him flying across the room where he

slammed against the wall in one end of the room and fell to the floor

unconscious.

Cyclops winced at the thought of how much that would hurt had Ranma hit him

that hard. It made him think that perhaps being dismissed as a possible opponent

was better off. Sure, his pride would be hurt, but his body wouldn't be.

He shook his head. No, his pride actually meant more to him.

Ranma turned around to face the window and grin at Cyclops.

"So, did you find out if what I said about the measurements and bodyweights

are correct?" Ranma asked.

Cyclops reluctantly nodded, "Yeah, they are,"

"Heh," Ranma chuckled, "So, are you gonna hold up on your end of the deal or

back out?"

Cyclops was silent for several long moments before he said, "No, I won't back

out. I'll help out, even if it is a really sick and perverted request,"

"Cool," Ranma chuckled, "Well, now that we've got that cleared, y'wanna spar?

I'm all nice and warmed up,"

Cyclops contemplated declining but decided against it. It was best he spar

against Ranma. Hopefully he could give him a good fight and earn more respect.

Respect needed to be earned and he was willing to pay for it with bumps and

bruises, like Logan.

"Okay," Cyclops said.

He entered the Danger Room, a bit worried as he noticed Ranma seemed to still

be in an excited state after a good match with Logan. Just the sounds of him

cracking his knuckles unnerved Cyclops.

"If get one direct hit on me, you win," Ranma said, "If I knock you out, well,

you lose. You've got I'll hit you nine times before I hit you with the knockout

blow with the tenth. the If you manage to win, we'll move up to two hits for our

next session,"

"Okay," Cyclops said. He felt a bit relieved that he didn't really have to

hold back with those optic blasts, Ranma tougher than whatever optic blast he

could dish out.

"Don't go easy on those optic blasts," Ranma said, "I wanna see just how good

you are,"

Ranma got into his battle stance, a stance Cyclops had never seen before.

"So tell me, how'd you manage get them to give you their personal

information?" Cyclops had to ask, shooting an optic blast right at Ranma.

Ranma deflected it with a well-timed arm swat. The blast struck one wall of

the Danger Room, singeing it. Since the walls of the Danger Room were very

strong, only an extremely powerful optic blast from a really pissed off Cyclops

could cause it considerable damage.

Cyclops seemed to be in a state of shock, "H-how did you manage to deflect

it?"

He had never suspected that to be possible. The blast was a concussive blast

meant to explode on impact. It should have exploded when Ranma's forearm came in

its path as he tried to swat it away.

"I made a bet with the girls," he said, answering the first question. He went

on to answer the second question, "Yes, I can deflecting projectiles. There're a

lot of stuff I could do that you've yet to see,"

Ranma shot two ki-blasts toward Cyclops' direction. One directly toward him,

the other just to his left. Cyclops' managed to jump out of the way of the first

blast but was struck by the second blast, sent flying across the room where he

landed a good distance backwards.

"That's hit one," Ranma stated.

Cyclops rubbed at his chest as he got to his feet. That hurt. It wasn't enough

to take him out, but it was definitely enough to let him know that he didn't

want to get hit by that again if possible.

"How did this bet come about?" Cyclops shot an optic blast toward Ranma again.

Ranma shot a ki-blast again, the blast seemingly absorbing Cyclops' optic

blast and continuing forward where it struck Cyclops in the chest again.

"That's hit two," Ranma said.

Cyclops slowly got back up to his feet. The second ki-blast hurt almost twice

as much as the first. If his attacks were going to become progressively more

painful, he'd black out long before the tenth hit.

"I asked them for their measurements and weight," Ranma said, "They didn't

take too kindly to that personal question. So much for the direct approach. I

offered them a wager,"

"What kind of wager did you make?" Cyclops ran forward Ranma and shot an optic

blast toward Ranma's chest, expecting him to either sidestep it or swat it away.

Either way, it didn't matter.

Ranma sidestepped the blast, brining himself directly in front of Cyclops'

jump kick. Expecting to hit him with the jump kick, Cyclops was caught

completely off guard as Ranma grabbed the ankle of his extended leg and threw

him over his shoulder and slammed him onto the ground.

"I told them that if I can make them laugh..." Ranma said, his grip still

tight over Cyclops' ankle, before brining over his shoulder again and slamming

him down again, "...that they would hafta gimme their measurements and

bodyweight. That's hits three and four right there,"

Cyclops staggered to his feet, bleeding from a large cut by his forehead, his

left shoulder dislocated, gritting his teeth.

"The plan was that they do whatever the could do to NOT laugh," Ranma said,

"If I managed to make them laugh, then they lose the bet,"

Ranma dashed forward and grabbed Cyclops' dislocated arm and executed a

shoulder through. The process slammed him on the ground hard, his shoulder

popped back in its place. Ranma had planned it that way. He then punched Cyclops

right in the face, the back of his head hitting against the ground.

"That's hits five, six, and seven," Ranma grinned. The shoulder throw counted

as one hit. The punch to the face counted as another hit. The back of his head

hitting against the ground counted as another hit.

Cyclops' staggered to his feet, feeling dizzy from the pain he was feeling.

"I told the girls a joke," Ranma said, grinning.

Cyclops' executed a roundhouse toward Ranma's head, Ranma somersaulting

backwards to create some distance between them, narrowly missed by the two optic

blasts Cyclops used to try to hit him while he flipped backwards and backwards.

"Like what kind of joke?" Cyclops was curious.

Ranma threw the unconscious Logan across the room where he slammed into

Cyclops, the two of them going tumbling. This shocked Cyclops, that Ranma would

use an unconscious man as a projectile.

"That's hit number eight," Ranma said.

Cyclops tried to get back up to his feet but couldn't. His legs didn't want to

work anymore, his body having taken too much damage. He glanced toward the side

where he saw Logan lying in the corner of the room on his back, still out cold.

"'Why did the man cross the road?'," Ranma said, slowly walking toward

Cyclops.

"Why?" he asked to progress the joke.

"'Because he heard the chicken was a slut'," Ranma said.

Cyclops snickered. He would have most likely laughed at that joke had he not

been in too much pain to do so. That was a funny.

Ranma ran up to him and kicked him right in the face, sending him flying

across the room. As he flew through the air, he mustered the last of his

remaining energy to reach for the button on his visor and pressed it just

fractions of a seconds before Cyclops ended up slamming against the wall where

he then slumped down to the ground unconscious.

Ranma, not expecting Cyclops to be able to muster enough strength for a final

attack and caught off-guard, instinctively brought both his arms up to shield

his face and chest area. The optic blast hit his forearms, enveloping him in a

massive explosion.

When the smoke disappeared, Ranma was unscathed but he had a smile on his

face. He walked across the room to where the unconscious Cyclops lay.

"Well, it seems like you've won,"

"It looks like You brutalized Cyclops in there," Beast said.

"He won though," Ranma said, "He got me just fractions of a second before I

knocked him out. I underestimated him, just like I underestimated Logan back

then,"

He was carrying the unconscious Cyclops and Logan over his shoulders and he

and Beast were on their way toward the Med-Lab.

"I can't believe how hard you went on him," Beast said, "I can understand you

going that hard on Logan, what with his mutant healing abilities, but Cyclops

doesn't have that,"

Ranma chuckled, "Logan doesn't have projectiles like Cyclops does,"

"I guess you have a point," Beast headed over to one of the medical cabinets

to get some gauze.

"So, what were you guys talking about in there?" Beast asked curious, "That

is, if you don't mind my asking,"

"Nothing much," Ranma shrugged, placing Logan and Cyclops on individual

medical beds. He went on to explain what he had explained to Cyclops about how

he arrived at those numbers. Beast found it insane on how Ranma could pull it

off, but didn't doubt that someone like Ranma could pull it off.

"You didn't use some weird powers on them, did you?" Beast asked, a bit

skeptic.

"I don't use my powers," Ranma stated, "The last time I actually used my

powers was saving those children during that building collapse. I've used it

before to mend my shirt, but I don't think you really care about details like

that,"

"What about for breaking through the adamantium?" Beast asked, "Your strength

must be one of your special powers,"

Ranma shrugged, "That can't be helped. My strength is innate, just like my AT

Field. I can't turn em' on or off. It's kinda like me asking you if your

knowledge of stuff is part of your powers. No, it isn't. So that kinda like how

it is for me,"

"I saw you shooting things from your hands," Beast said, "Aren't those those

ki-blasts you mentioned before? I remember seeing you hit Cyclops with it in the

hanger bay,"

Ranma chuckled, "Oh, those are ki-blasts. Those are nothing,"

"Nothing?" Beast was surprised to hear.

"Everyone can do it," Ranma said, "I just happened to be perhaps a master of

it,"

"Everyone?" Beast asked, pointing to himself, "Even someone like myself?"

"I dunno if mutants can do it," Ranma said, "But humans can,"

"Humans can do that?" Beast suddenly got worried.

"If Asuka wanted to, she can do it," Ranma said, "She just doesn't because

she's still learning. It usually takes decades to learn it,"

Beast asked, "Did that apply to you? It took you decades to learn it?"

"Nah, I learned it in a few days," Ranma smiled, "I'm a fast learner,

especially when it comes to physical tasks,"

"How powerful can one of those things get, those ki-blasts?" Beast asked.

"Like whose? If Asuka did it, it can probably take off a good chunk of a

building," Ranma said, "If I someone a bit better than her did it, then it's

easily nuclear. Around that of an N2-mine. It just scales upward from there. The

power of ki grows exponentially as you get better,"

"N-nuclear?" Beast said, "What's an N2-mine?"

"It stands for Non-Nuclear Mine," Ranma said, "I dunno the details of it. A

person I know back at my homeworld mentioned that super-octanitrocubane is one

of the key elements that make up an N2-mine. It happens to be the 'fuel' that's

gonna be used in the engine I'm planning to make. I have no idea what that

super-octanitrocubane is or how you come about it,"

Beasts eyes widened, "Octanitrocube? Really?"

"What, you know about that stuff?" Ranma asked, laughing, "I guess I shouldn't

be all that surprised. You seem to know quite a bit of stuff,"

"Thanks," Beast smiled, "I don't know if there's a difference between super-

Octanitrocubane and Super-Octanitrocubane but the former was created near the

turn of the century. Cubane was synthesized around the mid-1900's and just

recently, 8 nitro groups were successfully placed onto that Cubane structure,"

"Riiiight," Ranma said, sarcastically, "I still follow ya,"

Beast wished someone around there shared his enthusiasm with science and such

but it seemed like Ranma was not the case.

"I dunno how that stuff works, sorry," Ranma said, "Actually, correction, I do

know how that stuff works. I knew everything at one time. I just forgot it,"

"What do you mean you knew and forgot?" Beast said.

"Just that, I forgot it," Ranma said.

Beast seemed disappointed. He then said, "Back onto the subject of ki-blasts,

they can be that powerful?"

"Three of four of those can take out this school," Ranma said, "At least the

top portion of it. The underground portion of it, like where the Danger Room and

War Room and that Cerebro-room is a whole 'nother story,"

"From what I saw, it can take out mountains," Beast said, referring to the

tunnel Ranma had created for them out of The Vault.

Ranma nodded, "That's what I can do. I have better training. Not many people

can reach my level. Actually, only one is at my level,"

"Who?" Beast asked curiously.

"My friend, Ryoga," he said, "Actually, more along the lines of my nemesis. We

constantly fight and most of the stuff used can take out mountains. He's tough

guy and it takes a hit that hard to faze him,"

"How powerful of a blast can you make?" Beast asked.

"Really really really really really powerful," Ranma grinned, "Add a few more

'really's and you get the picture,"

"Like how powerful?" Beast persisted, "For analogy's sake,"

Ranma said, "No offense, but you wouldn't be able to comprehend it. I can't

describe it. Saying something like cutting this universe in half, wouldn't even

help,"

"You're kidding me, right?" Beast said, "How do you do something like that?"

"Told ya," Ranma smirked, "It's beyond comprehension. The only person that

seems to have a decent idea are Urd or people of divinity-type status, and Luna.

Urd is God, so naturally, she can understand. Luna is a human that was asked

transcend to a divine level but declined simply because she wished to remain

mortal,"

Beast said nothing.

"You said all humans can do ki-blasts," he said after a while, "Doesn't that

make them even more dangerous than mutants?"

"Bingo," Ranma said, "Humans have the potential to be more dangerous. But

judging from what I've seen, you have nothing to worry about since no one seems

to be aware of it even though it exists,"

"Who could be aware of ki-blasts?" Beast asked.

"Mostly martial arts master," Ranma said, "Truly dedicated ones at that.

Someone like Psylocke might be aware of it, but it doesn't mean she can wield

it. Wielding it is a whole 'nother story. I can teach it, but actually getting

the person to learn it is completely different,"

Beast asked, "Asuka, she knows how to do it. Is she one of the few people that

do know?"

Ranma shook his head, "She knows how to shoot it. She doesn't know how to

bring in the energy, the ki. That's the hard part, to do it yourself. I can just

give her ki and let her shoot as many ki-blasts as she wants, but that don't

help much. It's a person shooting a fire hose. It's really easy shooting it, but

if you don't know how to get the water running through the hose, it's useless,"

"That's incredible," Beast was stunned, "Would you ever like to display it for

me? I'd like to study it,"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. I don't like being a ginea pig,"

"But-"

"Nope," Ranma said, "It's not that I'm being selfish by not wanting you to

know the secrets I know or nothing. It's just like explaining riding a bike to

someone. You can give a person details and a general explanation about

something, but they hafta learn on their own. It's the same thing. Of course,

riding a bike is much much easier to learn on your own. Learning ki-blast is

like, learning to ride a bike before you can walk,"

"I understand," Beast said, "I won't bother you about it. Hey, it couldn't

hurt to ask,"

Ranma chuckled, "You're right about that,"

Beast turned his attention toward doctoring Cyclops' bumps and bruises. He

couldn't believe he had been so caught up that he had completely forgotten.

Ranma turned around and headed for the door, "I'm going to the hanger bay,"

"For what?" Beast asked.

"I'm gonna see if I can build the engine without that Molecular Rearranger

thingie. You wouldn'tve happened to have found out its location, would ya?"

Beast shook his head, "No, not yet. I was checking around for it before until

I stopped to tend to Cyclops. I'll get back to checking afterwards,"

"No rush," Ranma left the room.

Beast stopped as he thought of a moment on what Ranma had mentioned before but

forgot to ask him about it.

"I wonder how powerful of a ki-blast Ranma struck Apocalypse with and if it

was enough to kill him..."

Ranma crossed the hanger bay toward the back corner where various plane parts

and equipment were located. He didn't really care about what was there because

he was interested in the adamantium bars that were neatly stockpiled in that

location.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper with the design and

specifications of the engine he needed to build. Looked at the adamantium bars

and then looked at the piece of paper.

"How the fuck am I gonna make that..." he gestured toward the stockpile of

bars, "...look like this?" He gestured toward the piece of paper.

Ranma had a unique talent for fabrication working with metal, having

discovered that unique talent when he had to mounted that engine Priss had given

him in that station wagon he bought. The fact that the engine was originally a

rear-mounted engine and he had to put it in a car designed for a front-mounted

engine made him learn quite a bit of things about fabrication and metal-working.

No one really knew how Ranma managed to mount such an engine in a station

wagon, but Ranma managed to do so and learned quite a bit in the process. He had

also crafted a spear-like weapon capable of actually killing him. Everyone back

home had called it the 'Lance of Ranma'.

The weapon was an enchanted lance devastatingly more powerful than the Lance

of Longinus, it was designed not to kill angels, but to kill God. As a

prevention to it from falling in the wrong hands, some evil-doer wanting to

attain the powers of God by killing the current God, it could only be wielded by

someone with the exact same properties as the God to be killed. Only God could

kill God.

Aside from Urd, Rei and Shinji, and Ranma were the only people that could

wield said weapon. Funnily enough, the weapon was designed by Ranma to be used

against him should he ever turn into that 'other' version of himself. No one

back home really talked about it but were very aware of that 'other' version. It

referred to the 'suicidal' version of himself, the one hell-bent on killing Urd

and ceasing all of existence as well as himself.

He picked up the adamantium bar and looked at it, realizing that he had quite

a bit of work ahead of him. However, it didn't bother him that much because

trying to make the engine from these here adamantium bars was just a notion. He

had a pretty good idea that he needed that Molecular Rearranger to convert these

adamantium bars into the engine he needed.

"How the heck does that device work anyway?" Ranma wondered. After a moment,

he shrugged.

Placing the sheet of paper nearby so he could look at it as he tried to see if

he could make some of the many parts for the engine. After noticing the very

complicated designs to it and that it would be a lot harder to make than

expected, he decided it was best to get something started and just flatted the

bars into sheets of adamantium. That way, he could fabricate it into the design

he needed afterwards.

"That's the way to go," he said.

He looked over toward the large shed full of tools. It contained all the

necessary tool that would be used for fixing the plane. He assumed so because he

remembered seeing Nightcrawler heading over to that shed and take out a bunch of

tools to fix the broken cockpit window.

Opening the shed and looking through it, he spotted a hammer.

"Cool," Ranma picked it up and walked back over to the adamantium bar.

Crouching down over it, he proceeded to hammer to bar. He hammered it a few

times and noticed the bar didn't seem to flatten. He decided to hammer it a bit

harder, realizing that it was adamantium afterall so he needed to use more

force.

When he struck the bar hard, the hammer broke.

"Damn," Ranma said, picking up the broken hammer head. Inspecting it, he

noticed that the head of the hammer was actually dented inward, where he had

struck the adamantium bar.

"Great, how the hell am I gonna flatten an adamantium bar if the hammer's

gonna break?" Ranma muttered.

He wondered what he would need to flatten the bar.

"I know! I can use Thor's Hammer!"

new stuff 8/4

Thor touched down in the front field of the Xavier school sometime around two

in the morning. He was there to find out who the man that defeated him was. He

was sure the X-Men know who that man was.

He would ask them a few questions.

As he headed toward the front entrance, he couldn't help but recall the

conversation he had had with his comrade, Captain America, on who the Ranma that

defeated him and Iron Man was.

After he and Iron Man had woken up, they looked around and found themselves in

the middle of a large field. Gathering their thoughts, they realized where they

were and quickly headed back to The Vault to help everyone out with the task at

hand. They had more important priorities at hand and that was helping out in

subduing all those criminals running loose within The Vault.

It took several hours to get everything under control so that the government

troops could enter The Vault and establish order. After that had been done and

over with, the team had a chance to ask Thor and Iron Man what had happened.

"We have been defeated," Thor said, "Our opponent easily dispatched the both

of us with little effort,"

"What?" the everyone seemed to say.

"Who's this person you're talking about?" a female Avenger named Wasp asked.

She and the whole team of Avengers and the Fantastic Four arrived at The Vault

long after Ranma had easily dispatched Thor and Iron Man before leaving the

scene with the X-Men.

"The X-Men might know," Captain America said, the only person there at the

time that recognized Ranma, "I recognize that man. He was the person that saved

all those children during that building collapse. He was all over the news the

other day,"

Captain America had told that to him after they had dealt with The Vault

Incident. It had taken them several hours, even with the help of all the

Avengers and Fantastic Four, to subdue all the criminals that had been running

loose inside The Vault.

Thor had excused himself to go to the Xavier school to ask the X-Men

personally as to who that man was. The team had offered to accompany him but he

declined and said he wanted to just ask question and that was it, that there was

no need for them to all come with him.

As he headed for the front entrance, he noticed a man urinating in one of the

bushes near the corner of the school. It just so happened that that man was

Ranma. He had been outside doing katas when he felt the urge to relieve himself.

Since he didn't feel like walking all the way through the school to one of the

restrooms, he decided relieving himself in the bushes was better. It would help

plants grow better anyway.

Even though Ranma didn't really need to relieve himself, he did so simply

because of habit. It also subconsciously helped him hold on to some of his own

humanity.

"Why aren't thou using the john?" Thor said toward Ranma's back. There was

something wrong with public urination and he felt he was obligated to do

something about it.

Ranma turned around to face Thor, still in the process of relieving himself.

Thor jumped back as Ranma narrowly missed sprinkling him with urine. He looked

glared at Ranma, very annoyed. As he regarded Ranma, he recognized him.

"It is you!" Thor said in surprise, his hand gripping over the handle of his

Hammer.

"Sorry about that," Ranma said, turning his back toward Thor to finish

relieving himself.

Thor stood there, wondering what he should do. Should he attack the man?

Should he wait? Was he a criminal that escaped The Vault and defeated him and

Iron Man in the process? What's his connection to the X-Men?

Zipping up, Ranma turned to face Thor.

"Hey, I remember you!" Ranma pointed, the sudden motion causing Thor to take

cautious stance, "You're that guy with the hammer,"

Thor got a good look at Ranma's face. This was the first time he managed to

really see him up close. He and Iron Man had been chasing after him, trying to

knock him out as he ran away from them. They never got a good look at him, even

after he had knocked the two of them out.

"By Odin's Beard! Ranma!" Thor's eyes widened.

"Yep, that's my name," Ranma said, "What about it?"

Thor his this stunned look on his face, as if he couldn't believe who he was

looking at. He tried to say something but found himself at a loss of words.

He quickly knelt down on one knee, "Thou is honored by thee's presence. Please

forgive thee. Had I known who you were, I would never have tried attacking

thee,"

"Um, okay, whatever," Ranma said, "Dude, stand up, you're kneeling on a puddle

of piss,"

Thor quickly stood up.

"If you say that having my piss on your knee is an honor, I'm gonna hit you,

really hard," Ranma said, "You're freaking me out,"

"Thee is the previous God," Thor said, "Thee is friend of Her, the Almighty

Urd,"

"Whoa, you know Urd?" Ranma said.

Thor nodded.

"How's she doing?" Ranma asked curiously, "I haven't talked to her in a bit,"

"Thou have never been graced by her presence," Thor said, "However, I am very

well aware of her existence. She is the Creator. She is Existence. She is "

"Dude, can you please not talk like that, y'know, using 'thou' and 'thee'?"

Ranma said, "It reminded me of someone who used to talk like that and I don't

talk like that,"

"Okay, thou...I will try," Thor said.

"How do you know me?" he asked.

"I am aware of you because you used to be the previous God, before Urd," Thor

stated, "You are to be respected and feared as much as everyone is to respect

and fear Urd,"

Ranma scratched his head, "Respected, huh? I guess I could see where you're

coming from. She is God, afterall,"

Thor nodded, "And you are her equal, so you are to be respected every bit as

much,"

Ranma thought aloud for a moment, "Actually, I can beat her up, but I won't

tell if you won't tell,"

"I'm honored that you grace this world with your presence," Thor said,

"Speaking on my behalf as well as the Asgardian race I represent, you are highly

revered,"

Ranma shrugged, "Thanks,"

He didn't care about compliments. Actually, he disliked it. So used to

constantly being told he was a obnoxious and insulted he had gotten used to it

and didn't care to get used to being praised. It was one or the other and he

would rather be insulted instead. It felt more natural.

"Once again, I apologize to thee...to you," Thor said, "Had I known it was

someone of your importance, I would never have-"

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, a bit annoyed, "All right, all right, I get the

point. Enough with the sucking up,"

Thor became silent, feeling as if he had done something wrong to make Ranma

angry.

"Let's let bygones be bygones," Ranma said.

"Thank you," Thor said.

Ranma crossed his arms across his chest as he regarded the large man with

scrutinizing eyes. He noticed the Hammer that the man held and wondered if he

would part with it.

"So, you revere me, huh?" Ranma grinned mischievously.

Thor nodded. The fact that he didn't even pause to answer that made Ranma a

bit freaked out. Was he some kinda Ranma-otaku? That would be really scary.

Heck, just the thought that he could be prayed to kind of freaked Ranma out.

Sure, he had once been God, but that was now behind him.

"Fine, perhaps you can do me a favor," Ranma said.

"Yes, I'd be glad to if it's within my powers," Thor said.

Ranma extended his hand, "Lettme borrow your Hammer,"

"M-my Hammer?" Thor was expecting that.

"What, y'got a problem?" Ranma tried to say in a loud booming God-like voice.

Doing so made him cough and seem stupid, "Um, yeah, lettme borrow your Hammer,"

Thor held forward his Hammer for Ranma to take.

Ranma took the Hammer and suddenly fell to the ground as if unable to hold it.

Thor's eyes widened in surprise. He was aware of the enchantment on the Hammer

that only people 'worthy' was capable of wielding it. How could someone like

Ranma NOT be 'worthy' to wield the Hammer? It didn't make sense and it confused

the large man considerably.

"I don't think I'm 'worthy'," Ranma said, struggling to lift it.

Thor was silent. He was in a state of shock. Ranma was a person to be revered.

Seeing him unable to lift that Hammer was quite a blow to his perception of

Ranma. It was similar to worshiping a hero and suddenly finding out he was some

kind of loser.

"Ah ha, it is a mere ruse!" Ranma quickly lifted the Hammer toward the sky,

enjoying his moment, "You dare doubt that I can not lift this mere toy you

called the Hammer of Bozo-the-clown?"

"Sir, it's called the Hammer of Mjolnir," Thor corrected him.

"You dare correct me?" Ranma said, trying to keep a straight face, "I am never

wrong. You are wrong to believe it is called the Hammer of Mjolnir. Its real

name is Hammer of Anal-Dwelling-Butt-Monkey,"

"I thought you just called it Hammer of Bozo-th-"

Ranma burst out laughing, unable to contain himself. Thor just watched him in

surprise, not really knowing what to do. He decided it was best to stay quiet.

"Looks, I'm just messing around," Ranma said, wiping the tears from his eyes,

"No need to be so uptight around me and all. I'm just liked everyone else and

I'd like you to see me as no different,"

"I'll try," Thor said, "Um, so that Hammer was all a joke?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. Don't go running around calling your Hammer as whatever I

called it. If it's called the Hammer Mjolnir, then it's called that. Don't just

change its name just because I said so. I don't like that,"

"Very well," Thor said.

"I don't even know why you would listen to me," Ranma shrugged, "We don't even

know each other. Even if you hear of my exploits or whatever, you shouldn't pre-

judge a person until y'actually know them,"

"It's hard to not pre-judge you," Thor said, "You were God, afterall,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma said, "But in a world like this, you should

understand it really well. Imagine being a mutant and people pre-judging you

just because of who you are? Would you want that?"

Thor shook his head, "No. I would not. I understand,"

Ranma looked at the Hammer in his hands, "Do you need this Hammer?"

"Not if you require it, no," he answered.

"Cool, how long can I use it before you want it back?" Ranma asked.

"You can keep it for as long as you want," Thor said.

"Dude, what if I decide I wanna keep it?" Ranma said, "Then I'd have YOUR

Hammer and you'd be out a Hammer of Mjolnir, what does that prove?"

Thor was silent for a moment, "I don't understand,"

Ranma sighed, "Nevermind. Look, I'll just borrow your Hammer for tonight, just

gimme your phone number or address and I'll return it to you tomorrow,"

"I'll come back and pick it up," Thor said, "Just give me a time,"

"Um, how about noontime?" Ranma asked, "I don't think I really need it for

long,"

"Noontime it is," Thor said.

"Thanks," Ranma smiled.

"No, thank you," Thor said.

Ranma regarded Thor for a moment.

"Um, aren't you here for a reason or somethin'?" Ranma asked, "Why the heck

are y'here anyway? I doubt it was to watch me piss,"

Thor said, "One of my fellow Avengers recognized you. He told me that he saw

you with the X-Men on the television during the time when you saved a bunch of

children when a building collapsed. I came here to make and inquiry with the X-

Men as to who you were. I had no intention of seeking revenge for you defeating

me. I was merely curious as to who you were and if you were with the X-Men,"

"Heh, that's interesting," Ranma smirked, "Is it some kinda union rule in this

universe for people who don't know each other to fight each other?"

Thor chuckled a bit, "Perhaps. I can recall fighting many opponents I didn't

know initially and finding out down the line that he's 'one of the good guys' as

people put it,"

Ranma laughed.

"I originally thought you were an escaped criminal," Thor commented, "That is

why I attacked you. Now that I've met you, it's obvious that you were not and

was there to prevent criminals from escaping The Vault,"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Um, actually, I was the cause of it,"

"What?" Thor's eyes widened.

"I made a mistake while I was in there," Ranma said, "I was in there for other

reasons and accidentally let all the criminals loose. I fought my way out and

subdued most of them. Of course, when I came outta there, it's natural that you

thought I was one of 'em criminals,"

Thor was shocked at what he heard. No one knew how those criminals had gotten

out, but not it seemed like Ranma was telling him that he was the cause.

"Didja guys manage to get things under control?" Ranma asked, "I assume you

guys were there to take care of things and prevent criminals from escaping,"

Thor nodded, "Yes, we got everything under control. Most of the time spent had

been waiting for the government to bring in the Molecular Rearranger to

manipulate adamantium bars to open to allow us into The Vault,"

"Really?" Ranma's eyes widened, "The Molecular Rearranger?"

Thor nodded, "Aye. Most of the time was wasted waiting for the device to be

transported to that location for use,"

"Do you know where I can find one, that Molecular Rearranger thingie?" Ranma

asked, hopeful.

Thor shook his head, "No, I'm sorry, but I do not know,"

"How long did it take to be brought in?" he asked, "How was it brought in?"

"Around three and a half hours before the it was realized that no one could

get inside The Vault and the order was given to use the device," Thor said, "It

was brought in by truck,"

"Three and a half hours by truck, huh?" Ranma scratched his head, making sure

he would keep a mental note of it. Three and a half hours by truck mean that the

device must be located within a circle with a radius of around two hundred

miles. Sure, that was a large area, but it could prove useful in knowing.

Thor nodded, "Yes, four hours,"

"Well, I'm glad to hear everything turned out okay," Ranma said, "Sorry for

all the trouble I caused you. I thought I was helping out in actually sticking

those adamantium bars by the entrance to keep criminals out. I didn't realize it

would prevent the task force from getting in,"

"Just curious, was it some form of test?" Thor asked, "Did you do that to test

us, to challenge us to see if we could overcome certain odds?"

Ranma scratched his head, "Test? Huh?"

"Like some kind of Godly test," Thor said, "To make us grow as a team and show

us teamwork and grow as individuals,"

"Um, yeah, that was it," Ranma said, "It was all a test. You guys passed with

flying colors. You make me proud. You Avengers and Fantastic Four's did great,"

"Thank you," Thor said.

Ranma shrugged. It was best that he just let it be. That way, there would be

no further inquiries into finding out who had caused all of that incident. If

full investigations were made, there was a good chance the X-Men could be found

as contributors to the incident.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the school, "I'm gonna head in now,"

"Very well. I'll be going now," Thor said.

"Thanks for lending me the Hammer," Ranma smiled.

Thor said, "No, thank you for allowing me to help. I'm glad to be of service,"

Ranma smirked, "Would you still like to help me out?"

Thor nodded, "Sure, what would you like me to do?"

"Help me find out what kinda panties Storm wears," Ranma stated.

"What?" Thor gasped, "By Odin's Beard, did I heard that correctly? You want

me to help you find out what kind of...unmentionables Storm wears?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. So, y'wanna help?"

"I'll help out," Thor said, believing that it was another test, "You have

driven me to a task I hope the Avengers don't find out about. What would you

like me to do?"

Ranma regarded Thor for a moment, a bit disappointed. Thor looked like he was

actually going to help. He didn't even both asking why Ranma wanted to find out

what kind of panties Storm wore. Based on blind faith, Thor seemed willing to

help him out without so much as a single question.

Having someone willingly help him out with his perverted scheme made it seem

less worthwhile. It was more fun if the person having to help out was dragged

kicking and screaming into helping out. That made things more interesting.

Knowing Thor, he would probably get caught and just accept being attacked by

Storm in the process and consider it a part of a test Ranma had given him, that

that was to be.

"Nevermind," Ranma said, "There's no need,"

Thor said, "Okay,"

"See you around," Ranma said, "Take care,"

"You, too," Thor headed off.

Ranma watched as Thor walked off the school grounds and disappeared as he

rounded the front gate. This confused him a bit because he remembered Thor being

able to fly.

Little did Ranma know that Thor needed his Hammer to fly.

Ranma shrugged as he entered the school.

"Maybe he likes walking,"

"Is Thor stupid?" Ranma asked as he entered the War Room where Beast was

busily typing at the keyboard in front of his computer.

Beast looked up from his computer screen, "Excuse me?"

"Is Thor stupid?" Ranma asked again.

"Not at all," Beast said, "He's very smart. Why do you ask?"

"Hm, maybe it's just blind faith," Ranma said to himself, "That's gotta be it.

His blind faith in me makes it seem that way,"

"What are you talking about?" Beast was confused.

"Nevermind," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, wanting to change the subject,

"Hey, how goes the search for the Molecular Rearranger? I found some information

about it,"

"It's coming along," Beast answered, "What kind of information?"

"I found out that the device was brought in to be used during incident we

caused at The Vault," Ranma stated, "I was told that the device was transported

in by truck and it took around three and a half hours for it to arrive there.

That means-"

Beast said, "If that's the case, then that means that the device is stored

somewhere within a two hundred mile radius of The Vault,"

Ranma smiled, "Man, you're real quick. I was just about to say that,"

"That would make my job a lot easier," Beast smiled, "If I have a certain

location to work around, it'll make search for the device's location much

easier. I was actually searching for areas all over America and even Canada for

the device. At this rather, all I have to do is check the areas around Colorado

for it,"

Ranma nodded, "Cool,"

"How do you know about this?" Beast asked curiously, "Did someone tell you?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "Thor stopped by. He told me,"

"Thor stopped by? When? Why?" Beast asked.

"He found out who I was because of the news concerning me saving those

children," Ranma said, "He seemed to have put two and two together and found out

he should speak to the X-Men about who I am. I was outside when I met him. He

stopped by only around fifteen minutes ago. We talked for a bit and got things

cleared up over what happened at The Vault. He went back home after that,

wherever it is,"

Beast was silent for a moment, "Cleared things up? How so?"

"I'll explain that to you another time," Ranma said, "I'm gonna head off to

the hanger,"

"Hanger? What for?" Beast asked.

Ranma held up the Hammer Thor had let him borrow.

"T-that's Thor's Hammer! What are you doing with it?" Beast said in surprise.

"He let me borrow it," Ranma smiled.

"How? How did you get him to let you borrow his Hammer?" Beast was

flabbergasted.

"I asked him," Ranma smiled.

"B-but Thor doesn't let people borrow his Hammer," Beast stated.

Ranma said, "Well, up must be down and black must be white because he let me

borrow it. Don't worry about it, it's a long story. I'll tell ya it tomorrow. In

the meanwhile, I'm gonna be in the hanger if you need me. Good luck on finding

the whereabouts of the Molecular Rearranger,"

"Um, okay," was all Beast could say before Ranma left the room.

Beast was silent for several minutes, wondering what the heck was going on.

Thor showed up to find Ranma. After talking to him for a bit, Ranma got him to

let him borrow his Hammer.

"What the heck is going on here?" Beast said, "How does Ranma do that?"

Something suddenly dawned on him.

"If Ranma has his Hammer, how is Thor going to fly home? What, is he going to

walk?"

"Damnit," Ranma muttered under his breath.

He realized it was useless to try and hammer the adamantium bars flat. This

was because, even though the Hammer was stronger than the adamantium bars, the

floor wasn't. Every time he struck the bar with the Hammer, the bar would get

embedded in the floor. He couldn't do it on any other surface either, like the

table.

"I know, I'll use the Hammer as the surface," Ranma came up with the bright

idea.

He placed the Hammer on the floor and placed the bar on top of the Hammer. He

then stomped on the bar with his foot. To his dismay, the Hammer now became

embedded in the ground.

"Damnit again," Ranma sighed.

He wondered what he should do next.

After a moment he decided that maybe he should rest the Hammer on his thigh,

the bar on the Hammer, and try and use his hand to flatted the bar.

"This should work," Ranma said.

He struck the bar with and open-hand strike.

To Ranma's delight, the bar was flattened right around the area where he

struck it.

"All right, it works!" Ranma said happily.

When he felt something brushing down his leg, he looked down and caught sight

of the Hammer as it suddenly crumbled to pieces and fell down to his feet.

Ranma's eyes widened as he suddenly realized he had somehow broken the Hammer

of Mjolnir.

"Oh shit!" he said.

He never anticipated something like that would happen. Maybe he should had

used something else for the 'anvil' while he used the Hammer to flatted the

adamantium bar. But what?

"Damn, maybe I should've used Captain America's shield as an anvil," Ranma

said.

He looked a the bits an pieces of the Hammer by his feet and shrugged.

"Oh well, I guess it's moot now," Ranma commented.

Looking around, Ranma was glad that it was late at night and that no one was

in the hanger bay to see what had happened. They would most likely freak out. He

didn't need that right now.

He quickly kicked the broken pieces of the Hammer under the table and threw

the handle underneath with it. He was sure someone would discover the debris

someday, but he was pretty sure no one would suspect what it was. Besides, if

they did, he would be long gone by then.

Whistling, pretending nothing had happened, Ranma left the hanger bay.

"Aaaaahhhh!" Ranma screamed into Beast's ears, scaring the hell out of him.

Beast had been caught up with using his computer that he didn't hear Ranma

sneak up on him. Heck, he didn't hear Ranma enter the room. But then again,

Ranma did have immense sneaking skills that he could probably sneak up on Logan.

Beast jumped so high in his seat that he nearly fell out of it. His heart was

racing at a mile a minutes, truly frightened.

He swiveled around in his seat to see Ranma grinning down at him.

"W-what'd you do that for?" Beast said, trying to calm himself down.

Ranma shrugged, "I don't know. It seemed funny,"

"Well it wasn't funny," Beast said, taking a few deep breaths.

"I wasn't funny to you maybe," Ranma chuckled, "But to me, it was pretty damn

funny,"

"What do you want?" Beast said, a bit annoyed, turning back to his computer.

What Ranma had did was very childish and he didn't like childish things.

Ranma said, "I'm sorry. I was just messing around. Cantcha take a joke?"

"I can take a joke, but not when the risk of a heart attack is possible,"

Beast stated.

"Fine fine, I won't do it again," Ranma said, "Jeez,"

"How come you're here anyway?" Beast asked, "I thought you went to the hanger

bay?"

Ranma said, "I did. I'm back,"

"What happened?" Beast asked, "Using Thor's Hammer didn't work?"

"Um, yes," Ranma said.

"Yes, it did work? Or yes, it didn't work?" Beast asked.

"The second one," Ranma answered, "It didn't work. The surface I was trying to

rest the bar on while I used the Hammer isn't strong enough to sustain the

impact and would sag down. The bar seems to only get embedded,"

Beast said, "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Does that mean that the only thing

you can hope for is the Molecular Rearranger? Because the Hammer is useless for

something like this?"

"Oh, the Hammer is definitely useless now," Ranma commented.

"What do you mean?" Beast looked around, wondering where the Hammer was. He

assumed Ranma left it in the hanger bay.

Ranma said, "Nothing. Anyway, how goes the search? I know I've only been away

for around a half-hour, but I'd figure it couldn't hurt to try,"

Beast smiled, "Actually, I think I may have a location. There seems to be two

possible locations as to where the device is being kept. One is a military

storage depot. The other is a military airstrip,"

"Which one do you think it could be?" Ranma asked.

"Which one do you think it could be?" Beast asked in answer.

Ranma said, "Hm, probably the airstrip. Considering a storage depot was

attacked not too long ago for the adamantium, they'd be cautious of having the

device stored there. Besides, for the airstrip, it could be useful having the

device there since it could be used for something useful rather than sitting

around collecting dust in storage,"

"That's right," Beast said, "I believe it's at the airstrip. I'll find out for

sure not too long from now,"

"Cool," Ranma said.

"At this rate, we can probably get the Molecular Rearranger before we leave

for Antarctica," Beast said.

"Say, um, just curious, what happens to Thor if someone breaks his Hammer?"

Ranma asked.

"Why do you ask that?" Beast said, "What, did you break it or something? Is

that even possible?"

Ranma gave a meek smile, "It's just a hypothetical question..."

"Oh my God, you broke Thor's Hammer!" Beast gasped.

"Do you think he really needed it?"

Ranma entered his room, contemplating on what he should do about Thor's

Hammer. He had accidentally broken it so he should do something to make

reparations.

"Hm, I don't think something like 'I'm sorry' would work," Ranma said to

himself.

"What are you talking about?" Asuka, on the couch, looked up from her book,

narrowing her eyes, "What, did you 'accidentally' trip and fall on one of the

girls and grabbed one of the certain bodyparts in the process?"

"No," Ranma muttered. He couldn't help but feel a bit better since Asuka and

her constantly scolding him in annoyance was a stark contrast to Thor and his

blind faith and obedience toward him.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Ranma asked, "It's around two in the morning,"

"I'm not that sleepy yet. What were you talking about when you came in?" Asuka

asked curiously.

"I accidentally broke Thor's Hammer," Ranma said.

"How?" she asked, "Is that a really bad thing? How'd you get Thor's Hammer in

the first place?"

"I was trying to flatten those bars of adamantium and broke it instead, the

Hammer," Ranma said, "He stopped by not too long ago looking for me. I happened

to be outside at the time and talking to him for a bit and managed to get him to

let me borrow his Hammer,"

"What, did you beat him up and steal it?" Asuka asked.

Ranma said, "No. I didn't beat him up. He let me borrow it willingly. Now that

I've broken it, I don't really know what to do,"

Asuka shook her head in disappointment.

"You don't think I can buy one at a store or anything, do you?" Ranma said,

"I've seen shows where people loses a friend's pet or accidentally kills it and

goes to the pound and gets one that looks exactly like it and try to pass it for

the one they lost,"

Asuka smirked, "And how many of those shows ended with no one finding out what

had happened?"

"None," Ranma said, "But then again, this isn't a show. This is real life so

maybe it might work differently,"

"This is where I call you stupid for even think a plan like that would work,"

Asuka said.

Ranma sat down right next to Asuka on the couch, scratching his head, "Man, I

wonder what I should do. Maybe I should erase Thor's memory that he ever had a

Hammer,"

"Don't you think his friends would notice?" Asuka smirked.

"Maybe I should kill him," Ranma suggested, "That way, he won't know about the

Hammer, and his friends won't suspect a thing,"

"I know you're joking, Ranma," Asuka said.

Ranma said, "Hm, what to do? What to do? I know, how about I make him a

weapon? We can call it the Hammer of Ranma,"

"Maybe that could work," Asuka asked, "Considering how Beast mentioned he was

some kinda god, that should mean he could wield it,"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "You're right,"

"And just how do you intend to make it?" Asuka asked.

"I'll make it outta the adamantium we have," Ranma said confidently.

"And just how do you intend to fabricate it into a weapon when you broke the

Hammer that could hammer it into a weapon?" she asked.

"Damn, I didn't think of that,"

The next day, Ranma noticed no one was in the War Room when he entered.

In his hand was the Hammer he had broken. Figuring there was nothing much he

could do, he used his powers to fix it back good as new. While he was at it, he

gave it some special touches that made it better than what it was previously.

He felt bad for having to use his powers. He hated using his powers if he

didn't have to. But then again, for something like that, it was necessary. Had

he chosen not to, he'd probably have to go through some ridiculously hard task

of acquiring some special metal in some far-away land where he would have to

probably fight some mythical beast to acquire it since it was guarding it. He

would then have to bring it to some mythical forge to have some cranky old guy

forge it for him. Of course, that cranky old guy would probably ask he do some

stupid task of saving his kidnapped daughter from a band a thieves for him to

forge such a weapon.

"Damn fetch quests," Ranma muttered, "Hell no, this ain't no stinking role-

playing game,"

It was a good idea that he used his powers to fix it up.

"Heh, 'Ranma was here'," Ranma smirked as he read a small engraving on the

underside of the hammer-head, "Now this Hammer kicks even more ass than before,"

He had been eager to fight someone. Figuring that someone would show up sooner

or later, he decided he would occupy himself with looking up porn on the

computer.

Sitting down, he typed at some random buttons. It just so happened, through

astronomically impossible odds, he happened to type in the password to accessing

the computer in doing so.

He began surfing the internet, looking for porn. It didn't take long before

the computer screen was suddenly filled with pictures of naked girls. After

surfing around, a window popped up.

'Would you like to load the program into Danger Room?' the message on the

window said.

Ranma wondered if he should load any programs. He heard that that was how

viruses usually worked, that he needed to execute the program for the virus to

take effect.

"Hm, this place doesn't house any criminals so it shouldn't be all that bad,"

Ranma said.

He clicked on the accept button and executed the program.

All of a sudden, he heard moaning voices coming from the Danger Room. This

made Ranma wonder if someone was hurt in there and was moaning in pain. It

sounded odd because it sure didn't sound like moans of pain, that was for sure.

"Hot damn!" Ranma said as he noticed a group of girls in the middle of the

Danger Room having an orgy. It didn't take him long to realize that there was

some kind of holographic projector making that happen.

It displayed a large king-sized bed with four girls on it going at it.

The stood there, watching as they seemed to all go down on one another.

Ranma was so caught up in watching that he didn't notice Rogue and Psylocke

enter the room until the shrieked in surprise when they wondered what had

Ranma's attention so much and walked over to where he was to investigate.

"Ranma!" both girls shouted.

"Um, it was like that when I came in," Ranma said, trying to act innocent,

"Really, I dunno who could've done that,"

"Yeah right," Rogue said, walking over to the computer to deactivate the

holographic programming. She typed a few buttons on the keyboards and soon

realized that she seemed to have been locked out, that the computer seemed to

respond to none of her inputs.

"A-Ah can't stop the program," Rogue said.

"I'll go deactivate it from the inside then," Psylocke headed forward the

entrance to the Danger Room. When she got to the door, she noticed that Thor's

Hammer was resting right in front of the door.

"What the?" she asked, trying to move the Hammer, much to no avail.

"I dunno how that got there," Ranma said, trying to keep a straight face. He

had placed the Hammer there when he heard Rogue commenting about being locked

out from the computer and had assumed there was most likely some kind of cut-off

switch inside the Danger Room itself.

"Ranma," Psylocke narrowed her eyes toward him.

Ranma sighed, "Fine,"

He picked up the Hammer and stepped away from the door and watched in

disappointment as Psylocke entered the Danger Room and opened up a small control

panel in the wall he never knew existed. Pressing a few buttons, the holographic

projector suddenly shut off.

"Care t'explain why we saw what we saw?" a blushing Rogue asked impatiently,

expecting some wiseass response.

"I was downloading porn and somehow got it on the pornographic projector,"

Ranma said.

"I think you mean the holographic projector," a blushing Psylocke corrected

him.

"I think my version sounds better for the occasion," Ranma smiled.

Both females glared at him.

"What, was what I did wrong?"

"Ranma's lookin' at pornography," Rogue complained to Cyclops as he was slowly

waking up in the Med-Lab.

He had been knocked out so hard that he didn't wake up until the following

morning.

Cyclops rubbed at his shoulder which felt tender. He looked around and

immediately ascertained that he was in the Med-Lab. He suddenly recalled having

been knocked out by Ranma last night.

"What was that?" he had a headache, "What time was it?"

"Ranma's lookin' at pornography," Rogue repeated, "And it's six in

th'mornin',"

"Oh man, it's six in the morning and Ranma's already causing trouble?" Cyclops

sighed, "It's too early to deal with him already,"

Cyclops, an early riser, had a headache and wasn't in the mood to having to

deal with things.

"Y'might might also wanna know that we're not too sure but it seems like Ranma

stole Thor's Hammer," she added.

"What?" Cyclops asked.

"And he downloaded a virus on the War Room's computer," she said.

Cyclops sighed. He felt like the pain from his headache was becoming sharper,

like that of a migraine.

"He also somehow created holes in th'floor of th'hanger bay," she added, "It

seems like he was tryin' to do somethin' with those adamantium bars and only

ended up embedding 'em in the floor. Ah jus' figured Ah'd letcha know,"

Rogue left the room. Cyclops, as the leader of the X-Men, would basically be

expected to talk to Ranma about his antics.

Cyclops pinched the bridge of his nose as he knew he was definitely getting a

migraine.

At that moment, Ranma entered the Med-Lab.

Cyclops regarded Ranma, the walking chaos.

"Cool, you're awake, let's go find out what kind of panties Storm wears,"

Ranma smiled, "Remember, you lost that bet,"

Cyclops sighed, feeling worse now than when he had been getting his ass beat

by Ranma in the Danger Room the other night.

Ranma and a reluctant Cyclops walked down hallway.

"Do I really have to do this?" Cyclops actually whined.

"No, you don't, if you don't want to," Ranma shrugged, "You can chicken out if

you want. I'll just have very low respect of you,"

Cyclops was silent for a moment, "How can I get more respect from you doing

something so disrespectful as stealing Storm's underwear?"

Ranma turned toward him, "You don't hafta steal it. You just need to know what

kind they are,"

"How's that make it any easier?" Cyclops said, "If I see it, I'm already at

the point where I'm able to probably steal them,"

"If you want to steal 'em, that's your prerogative," Ranma said, "What you do

with 'em is up to you. What, you have a thing for stealing underwear? What do

you do with 'em, like, steal 'em and sniff them? Or perhaps put them over your

head and sniff really hard?"

"That's absolutely disgusting," Cyclops said, "Something like what you've

mentioned has never crossed my mind,"

"Are you sure you're straight then?" Ranma grinned, "You'd probably make a

really good girlfriend since you're so 'tight-assed' if y'know what I mean,"

Cyclops found himself getting angry.

"Dude, be a fucking man," Ranma said, annoyed, "Had I lost, I would've gotten

you beer, and I'm against alcohol,"

Cyclops never knew that, that Ranma hated alcohol. Of course, Ranma didn't

what with the fact that he didn't care if Asuka drank, but he decided to use

Cyclops ignorance as leverage.

"Fine," Cyclops said, muttering under his breath, "What do you want me to do?"

At that moment, Storm rounded the corner, carrying with her a pair of clothes

in her hands and a towel over her shoulder. The two knew she was on her way

toward the locker room to take a morning shower.

"Good morning," she smiled toward the two of them, even Ranma. This was

because Ranma had made her laugh so hard last night that whatever anger or

animosity she held toward him was now gone.

"Morning, Storm," Cyclops smiled, a bit embarrassed.

"Good morning, Nigga," Ranma said.

"What?" Storm and Cyclops gasped in absolute disbelief.

"Good morning, Nigga," Ranma said.

Storm and Cyclops looked at each other.

"D-d-do you have any idea what you're saying?" Cyclops felt worried.

Ranma held his hands up defensively, "Hey, before you try and fry me or

something, take note that I'm using the endearing term 'Nigga', and not

'Nigger',"

Storm started twitching with rage, "Y-y-y-you n-never c-c-call m-me t-t-

that..."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ranma said in a truly sincere voice, "Really, I am. I didn't

realize it would make ya so angry. I was trying to be endearing toward you, not

be insulting toward you,"

Storm seriously contemplated just frying him for the hell of it. Sure, Ranma

was fast, but considering how angry she was, she knew she would be able unleash

an electrical storm toward him that there was no way he could dodge it.

She took several deep breaths as she let herself calm down. Ranma didn't

understand the English language so he was very ignorant. Still, she felt like

she shouldn't let something like that go. However, the sincerity in his voice

indicated that he truly didn't mean to make her so angry.

"Never call me that again," Storm told him, "If you're ever going to refer to

me, you refer to me by Storm,"

"Um, okay," Ranma said, "How about your real name? Ororo, right?"

She sneered, "I'll think about it. I'm too angry at you right now to care to

allow you that sense of familiarity with me,"

"Okay, okay, I understand," Ranma said with a shy smile.

Storm snorted in annoyance as she walked past Cyclops and Ranma, heading

toward the locker room.

"See you around, Scott," Storm said to Cyclops, "And, Ranma, I hope not to see

you around for a while...at least until I cool off,"

Ranma and Cyclops watched as Storm disappeared into the female locker room

down the hallway.

Cyclops turned toward Ranma, "I can't believe you did that. She was so ready

to fry you that it wasn't funny. I haven't seen her that angry in a very very

long time.

He walked over toward the window and glanced out where he could see pitch-

black storm cloud slowly clearing up. That was one of Storm's traits, her anger.

When she got angry, dark storm-clouds formed around the environment around

wherever she was.

"You really really got her angry with that comment," Cyclops said, "I can't

believe you said that,"

"I know," Ranma said, "She looked mighty pissed, like a storm's abrewing', get

it?"

"How can you joke at a time like this?" Cyclops said.

Ranma shrugged, "Hey, I made a mistake. Get off my dick about it. Jeez. Then

again, you are a superior-homo so I guess that's understandable. And don't

forget you'd be a real catch since you're such a tight-ass,"

"First off, it's homo-superior," Cyclops sneered, "And you better shut up with

those gay jokes,"

"What, you homophobic?" Ranma asked, smirking.

"No, I'm not," Cyclops said, trying to keep calm, "For your information, I

know a bunch of gay people,"

"Like your boyfriend?" Ranma smirked.

Cyclops took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. Should he shoot Ranma in the

chest? That would definitely make him feel better.

"I'm just fucking with you," Ranma said, "You need to loosen up,"

Cyclops said, "Is that supposed to be another pun?"

Ranma burst out laughing, "Oh man, I didn't even realize that. Loosen up.

Tight-Ass. That's funny,"

"I was referring to the 'fucking with you'," Cyclops said.

"Oh yeah, that's kinda like a pun too, huh?" Ranma said, laughing again

Cyclops glared at him. How the heck did the conversation move from Storm being

angry at Ranma to Ranma insulting him?

"All right," Ranma said, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes, "Where

were we?"

Cyclops said nothing, worried.

"Oh yeah, finding out what kinda panties Storm wears," Ranma remembered,

"Now's the perfect chance. She's taking a shower,"

"W-what? What do you intend to do?" Cyclops asked, gulping in nervousness.

"You sneak in to the locker room and take a peek," Ranma said.

"What?" Cyclops said. His eyes were most likely wide with surprise behind

that visor of his.

Ranma said, "Take a peek at her clothes, not at her, fool,"

"But she's really angry right now," Cyclops said, "Have you any idea how much

trouble you'll get in if you get caught?"

Ranma smirked, "Who says I'm gonna be the one sneaking in there?"

"What?" Cyclops said.

"Yep, you're going in," Ranma said, "All y'hafta do is go in, find her pile of

clothes, take a peek and see what kinda panties, and come back out. That's it,

really easy,"

"No," Cyclops said, "I refuse, not in a situation like this. No way,"

"Fucking pussy," Ranma taunted.

"I don't care," Cyclops said, "Go ahead. She's in a state of rage right now

because of you so if she catches me, she's going to vent all her anger on me,"

Ranma smiled, "That's why it's imperative that you not get caught. If you do,

you die,"

Cyclops shook his head, "No, I refuse. Count me out. Make fun of me, I don't

care. It's not worth it,"

Ranma smirked. He had to admit, Cyclops was a bit smart for choosing the

coward's path. Storm was really angry and the risks were definitely

astronomically higher than normal.

"Fine, how about we go in together?" Ranma asked, "That way, if we do get

caught, we'll both get in trouble,"

Cyclops thought about it for a moment. This was his last chance to accept. If

he didn't, Ranma would probably make his life a living hell, and he didn't want

that.

"Fine," Cyclops agreed reluctantly.

Together, the two of them waited around for around five minutes, figuring that

was the adequate amount of time needed for her to get undressed and be in the

shower.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing this," Cyclops said, looking both way

down the hall, glad no one was around, "How the heck are we gonna get outta

there?"

"I don't think that far ahead," Ranma smirked.

"W-what?" Cyclops said.

Ranma opened the door and entered. Cyclops, not really knowing what to do,

follow in behind him. He wished he hadn't because when he looked around, he saw

Storm, fully dressed, standing by a locker, looking at the two of them.

"What are you two doing in here?" Storm asked, feeling a sense of rage. There

had to be a good reason. When she noticed Cyclops was with Ranma, she figured

she would not jump to conclusions. If Ranma had been alone, she would've

believed Ranma was there to peep on her. Since Ranma was with Cyclops, and

Cyclops would definitely not the type of person to let Ranma peep on her and

would do something about it, there had to be a good reason.

"Um, er-" Cyclops found himself trying to think of up something, his mind

drawing blanks. He was so dead. His wife, Jean, was going to kill him and brand

him a pervert like Ranma.

"Ah, good, you're still dressed," Ranma said, thinking quick on his feet.

"What is it?" she asked, narrowing her eyes on him suspiciously.

"Um, I'm sorry about what had happened," Ranma quickly said, trying to think

of something, "Um, I was kinda hoping I can take you out to dinner, as a way of

apologizing," He had to think of something that would throw her off-guard, which

would allow him enough time to think of something good to say. Unfortunately, he

seemed to have said something that not only threw her off-guard, but himself

off-guard as well.

"W-what?" Storm wasn't expecting that.

Ranma nudged at Cyclops, hitting him hard in the ribs, "Yeah, he suggested it.

He told me to come in ask you but I said you were probably in the shower but he

insisted,"

He was angry at Cyclops. He wanted to try and get him in trouble while saving

his own skin. He wouldn't be in this situation if Cyclops didn't try to wimp out

on his task at hand and he offering to go in with him.

"Like, as in a date?" Storm asked, blushing.

"Um, er, yeah?" Ranma asked, hoping Storm would decline.

Storm narrowed her eyes at Ranma for a moment, "That's a rather bold move,

especially considering what you said to me before. I'm still angry at you for

that,"

"I'm sorry. I told you, it was an accident," Ranma gave a shy smile, his words

sincere.

"I'll think about it," Storm smiled after a moment, her visage becoming more

serene.

"Um, okay," Ranma said.

"Is that all?" she asked.

Ranma tried to glance at the pile of clothes right by Storm, hoping she kept

her panties on the top. He needed to seize opportunities whenever they presented

themselves. He noticed that it seemed to be buried under her clothes. It

couldn't hurt to try and find out.

"Um, nothing," he said, "Um, I guess we'll be going now,"

"Right," Storm said.

Ranma gave a shy smile as he left, grabbing the embarrassed Cyclops by the

back of his shirt collar, choking him as he pulled him out of the locker room.

Cyclops, realizing that a disaster was averted, sighed in relief as he heard

the door close behind him.

"Thank god we're now safe," Cyclops said, feeling his rapidly beating heart

startling to slow down once again.

"Who says YOU'RE safe?" Ranma grabbed Cyclops by the shirt collar, "Because of

you being a pussy and me joining you to basically hold your damn hand through

this ordeal, now I'm stuck having to date Storm,"

"But she said she would think about it," Cyclops said.

"She's going to accept, I know it," Ranma muttered, "It's you're fault. Now I

hafta date her,"

"Um, er,"

Ranma grabbed reached around Cyclops' wallet from his back pocket, "Gimme your

wallet!"

"Hey, what are you doing?" Cyclops said, trying to figure out what was going

on.

"It's because of you, I'm going on a date with Storm," Ranma said, opening the

wallet and taking out a fistful of cash, "And because of that, you're paying for

our date! And I'm gonna make sure I spend every penny of it,"

He handed Cyclops his wallet back.

"Oh yeah, have a nice sleep!" Ranma said.

He brought a leg up and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying down the

length of the hall where he slammed bodily against the wall and fell to the

floor unconscious.

"Damn, that felt good," Ranma smirked, looking at the amount of money in his

hands, "What? All you have is twenty ones? What, did Jean not give you your

weekly allowance yet?"

"Eek, a mugger! We have an intruder!" a young student had witnessed what

had happened and believed Ranma had basically robbed Cyclops. She began running

down the hallway. She didn't recognize who Ranma was but knew he had mugged

Cyclops.

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose as the sound of an alarm sounded loudly.

"You've gotta be kidding me,"

Ranma sat by the front entrance stairs that morning as he watched Jean teach a

class. He found watching her lift that rock interesting. He liked telekinesis

and seeing it in action. Funnily enough, Jean got the impression that Ranma was

there to watch her and not the rock and it made her nervous as she taught the

class.

The incident with Ranma being mistaken for an intruder was easily fixed. Ranma

had explain to the X-Men that responded that he knocked Cyclops unconscious and

someone thought he was an intruder. Because they seemed now used to the friendly

rivalry the two of them shared, they didn't bother to look into it.

Logan emerged from the school. He sat down on the steps next to Ranma.

"I heard from Beast that you met with Thor last night," Logan commented.

"Yeah, last night. So, how do you feel? I gave you a pretty good beat down in

the Danger Room last night," Ranma continued to smirk.

One of Logan's middle claws shot out toward Ranma, his way of flipping Ranma

off.

Ranma chuckled, "So, when'd ya wake up? Must've been before Cyclops because he

only woke up a short while ago, and you were already gone from the Med-Lab when

I stopped by before,"

"I woke up at around two in the morning and went to my room and went to bed

afterwards," Logan stated, "You may be able to knock me out, but I'll be up

before you know it,"

"Wow, you woke up then? And I thought you'd be out cold for a while, I hit you

really hard in the Danger Room," Ranma said, impressed, "Damn, you're a lot

tougher than I thought,"

Logan smirked. He didn't really consider it a compliment even though it sure

seemed that way.

"Back to before, yeah, Thor stopped by," Ranma said.

"What for?" Logan asked, "Did it have somethin' to do with The Vault?"

Ranma nodded. He went on to explain the encounter, even mentioning about how

Thor seemed obligated to obey his commands for some reason. He mention that he

had even borrowed Thor's Hammer which shocked Logan. Logan was even more shocked

when Ranma told him he had accidentally broken it. Of course, he quickly

mentioned that he fixed it back up like it was good as new.

"All in all, it seems like those adamantium bars are useless because I don't

have the proper tools to use," Ranma said, "I guess I need to use that Molecular

Rearranger device,"

"Speaking of which," Logan said, "Beast mentioned to me and I figure I might

as well relay it to you. He found out that that device you mentioned is located

on a military airstrip as you had predicted,"

"Cool," Ranma said.

"Y'might wanna mention that to Cyclops so he can figure out a plan on when to

leave and how to go about with the operation," Logan said, getting up to his

feet, "I'm heading in now. I just figured I'd mention it to ya,"

Ranma said, "Going to the Danger Room to train?"

"No. For some odd reason, it smells like piss over here, like someone pissed

in those bushes over there," he answered, jerking a thumb toward some bushes

nearby.

Ranma gave a shy smile.

"Um, gee, I wonder who would do that?"

new stuff 8/5

Cyclops rubbed his head as sat upright in his bed in the Med-Lab.

He found it strange how Ranma, a person that probably considered him a friend,

would hit him so hard. If he struck friends that hard, he hate to wonder how

hard he would hit people he didn't like.

"You okay?" Beast asked, an amused look on his face, entering the room.

"I've felt better," Cyclops said.

"What did he do?" Beast asked curiously, "Was it an argument that got out of

hand? "

Cyclops aid, "An argument? More or less. Ranma mugged me,"

"What?" Beast asked, "I don't think I heard that last one. Did you just say

Ranma mugged you?"

Cyclops nodded, "Yeah. Before he knocked me out, he stole all my money,"

"Whatever for?" Beast asked, "Ranma's done some extreme stuff, believe me, I

know, what with me spending a good portion of the morning containing that virus

that he had downloaded and infected the War Room's computer, but to mug a

person, that's rather extreme,"

"I guess I kind of deserved it," Cyclops said.

"Why, what happened?" Beast asked.

"Because of me, Ranma has to go on a date with Storm," Cyclops said.

Beast looked confused.

"It's kind of hard to explain," Cyclops commented, "It's really weird,"

"Seems so," Beast smirked, "Should I even bother asking how that came out?"

Cyclops got out of the bed, "Not really. I'm not all that inclined to tell

since even I don't know what the heck really happened,"

Beast shrugged, "Okay, so be it. On a side note, I've discovered the location

of the Molecular Rearranger,"

"You have?" Cyclops asked, impressed at how efficient Beast was at information

gathering.

Beast nodded, "It's located in Kaselin Air Base,"

"Kaselin Air Base? Out in Colorado?" Cyclops asked.

Beast nodded, "Yes, Ranma found out from Thor where the device is location,"

"From Thor?" Cyclops asked, "When did he come in contact with Thor?"

"Last night," Beast answered, "He came to visit and Ranma talked to him. I

don't know the details about what they talked about but it seems like they

cleared things up and Thor holds no animosity toward Ranma for defeating him,"

After a moment, he remembered Rogue mentioning something about that, that he

had somehow stolen Thor's Hammer. He had been meaning to ask him about that

before but had been so caught up in being scared about the task he was expected

to carry out, finding out what kind of panties Storm wore.

"Now that we know where to get the device, all we need to figure out is a

proper time to go get it," Beast stated, "I know you believe it's better that we

go to Melroy tonight instead, but we've still got quite a bit of time before we

need to head to Antarctica. We can get this mission of acquiring the Molecular

Rearranger in before we're expected to head down there,"

Cyclops thought about it for a moment, "But do we really want to? It sounds

like an unnecessary mission. What do you think?"

"I'd have to disagree," Beast said, "It couldn't hurt to be safe than sorry.

We've already have the adamantium bars in a stockpile down in the hanger bay. If

we get our hands on the device, we won't need to go down to Antarctica,"

Cyclops nodded, "You definitely have a point. Plus, it's a much shorter trip

going to Colorado instead of Antarctica, that's for sure,"

"I agree," Beast said.

"All right," Cyclops said, "We'll leave for Colorado at noon. That gives us

plenty of time to prepare and plan for the trip,"

"Okay," Beast said, heading for the door, "I'll go tell the others. They're

all in the War Room and Danger Room,"

Ranma was gazing out the widow of the hallway right in front the bedroom as

Asuka emerged. She had been about to head to the War Room to look for Ranma to

go get some breakfast.

"Ah, g'mornin', Asuka," Ranma smiled warmly, "How was your sleep? Have any

weird cheesy romantic dream about me?"

Asuka blushed but quickly composed herself, "Man, do you like teasing people

for some reason? Jeez, it's too early to hafta deal with your antics,"

"It's around ten," Ranma said, "It's not that early,"

"Oh," Asuka had assumed she had woken up much earlier. Then again, perhaps she

shouldn't be all that surprised because she had gone to sleep much later than

usual.

"How come you're here? I figure you'd to be in Danger Room or War Room," Asuka

said, "As a matter of fact, I was on my way there,"

Ranma said, "I got banned from there,"

"What?" Asuka asked, "What did you do now?"

"Hey, what makes you think it was my fault?" he asked.

Asuka wasn't buy Ranma's innocent plea one bit.

"Ah, forget about it, it's no big deal anyway," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

"Um, so, y'wanna get some breakfast?" Asuka asked.

Ranma smiled, "Yep, that's why I'm here. I was waiting for you,"

Asuka blushed, "Um, okay,"

Ranma and Asuka headed down the hallway. She glanced down the hallway where

she noticed an indentation on the wall way down on the other end of the hallway.

She decided to say nothing about it, figuring it was probably Ranma's fault. She

simply didn't want to mention it because it would seem like nagging and Ranma

had expressed to her that she should try and not be on his case all the time.

Together, they headed for the front door.

"I'm supposed to go on a date with Storm tonight,"

"What?" Asuka gasped, nearly spitting out her soda.

"Can you help me with something?" he asked, a bit hopefully.

Asuka, feeling a tinge of jealousy, "How come you're going out on a date with

Storm? She asked you and you accepted,"

"Um, not quite," Ranma said, "The opposite. I guess I'm breaking some kinda

rules of the universe since it's usually the girls job to ask the guy out,"

Asuka fell out of her seat from that comment. Ranma still believed that he

existed in a universe where its common practice that girls asked out guys?

Asuka said, "For the last time, it doesn't work that way. It's guys that ask

girls out. It's always been like that. That's the way it is and that's the way

it always is. You just happen to be such an exception that it's skewed your

perception of how males and females interact,"

"Whatever," Ranma obviously didn't believe her.

Asuka twitched a bit, angry at how stubborn Ranma was. And what was funny is

that there was no way she could prove it to him. It also didn't help that Ranma

watched anime where the female anime characters always had a tendency to ask the

male anime characters.

"You know what's wrong with you? You believe you're in some kinda anime

universe," Asuka commented.

Ranma said, "Actually, I believe I'm in some kinda weird comic-like universe.

You ever notice how exaggerated the X-Men's punches and kicks are?"

Asuka was a bit confused about that commented.

"Anyway..." Ranma said, signaling for Asuka to move on.

"Have you not noticed how many GUYS hit on GIRLS back home?" Asuka argued,

"When we the last time you saw GIRL hit on a GUY back home?"

Ranma shrugged, "Those guys are sluts,"

"What?" Asuka said.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Forget it. I'm not even gonna argue with

you on where you could've possibly come up with such an observation, guys being

sluts,"

"Guys should save themselves for when the time is right," Ranma stated,

"Y'know, for when the moment is right,"

Asuka fell out of the seat again, "What? What goddamn world do you live in?

What possible guy like that exists and think like that?"

"I think like that," Ranma said.

Asuka was rather stunned at the comment. This seemed like a small hint that

could indicate that Ranma was indeed a virgin like she and most of them believed

but couldn't prove, which made him seem more attractive simply because he was

'uncharted' territory as Misato crudely put it. Funnily enough, where some women

generally wanted men they hooked up with non-virgins, simply because of their

sexual experience, a comment Misato had made had smashed that preference to

pieces. She believed that Ranma could satisfy a woman better than any man could

ever possibly satisfy her, simply because of the fact that he used to be cursed

so he actually knew the female body better than any other man could possibly

know. Ranma was the 'virgin-whore' as Misato believed, a walking oxymoron in a

sense, pure as freshly fallen snow but experienced like no woman could ever

comprehend.

"So, you believe that, huh?" Asuka smirked, "You believe men should wait until

they're married, huh?"

"No, I never said that," Ranma said, "I believe they should wait until the

moment's right,"

Asuka sighed. That did nothing to solve the ever-lasting question as to

whether or not he had ever did it. It actually drove them nuts that they didn't

know.

"And what about a girl's belief?" Asuka asked, "Should they believe in the

same thing?"

"I think they should believe in what I believe in. Of course, they're usually

driven to have as much sex as they can get," Ranma said, "They'd get turned on

if I showed up naked and brought beer,"

Asuka blushed a deep shade of red as an image of Ranma standing naked carrying

a case of beer entered her mind. Drunk-sex would probably be really wild with

him.

Ranma pointed toward her, "Hey! Don't even go there!"

Asuka wanted to scream in frustration. Ranma was in a predicament where he had

women flocking toward him and he wouldn't accept a single advance. Ranma stung

along women without stringing them along. Because it seems like he wanted no

one, ever woman had this belief that she would be The One to change all that,

that she had the chance. It was similar to being in a room with a full of people

heading off a suicide mission where everyone from that room but one person was

going to die. Everyone would always believe that he or she was that one person

that was going to survive.

"You're so frustrating to understand it's not even funny," Asuka sighed. Ranma

was equivalent to the super-gorgeous woman of every man's dream that had the

sexual experience, and not through sleeping with other people, to make a guy

feel like he had died and gone to Heaven.

Heck, Ranma knew that 'Big-O' technique which he claimed that felt so sinfully

good that 'it could change a woman's religion', whatever that meant. That was

reason enough to go after him.

"Can you help me out?" Ranma asked.

"Huh? How? With what?" she asked.

"Can you help break up my date?" Ranma asked.

"M-me? You want me to break it up?" Asuka asked. She couldn't believe what she

was hearing.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, can you do me that favor?"

"Um, I dunno what to say?" she said in disbelief.

He reached out and grabbed Asuka's hands, placing hers in his, "Say you'll do

it,"

Asuka blushed a deep shade of red.

"Um, okay," was all she could say.

What was funny is that the moment Ranma said that he was expected to go on a

date with the beautiful Storm, Asuka had jealously wanted to sabotage that date

in any which way.

"Have it you where you bump into us as we're on our way out the door on a

date," Ranma said, "I'll ask you if you'd like to come along and you say yes.

That way, it'd be a double date,"

Asuka regarded Ranma for a moment.

"Um, a double date?" she asked, wondering if she was supposed to ask someone

to go along with her like Logan or Beast or Nightcrawler.

"Yeah, a double date," Ranma nodded, "Y'know, where a guy takes two girls at

once on a date,"

Asuka fell out of her seat again from shock.

Ranma's perception of the world was beyond messed up.

Ranma and Asuka arrived back at the school at around noontime, just in time

for Asuka to catch sight of Thor walking toward the school.

"Hey, isn't that that Thor guy?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah, you're right," Ranma said.

"I-is he here to challenge you?" she was a bit worried.

"Not if he knows what's good for him," Ranma laughed.

"I think if you do decide to join the X-Men, you should be called 'Mr.

Modesty'," Asuka said sarcastically.

Ranma chuckled, "Actually, he's not here to challenge me. Thor seems to know

who I am?"

"Well, you defeated him yesterday, right? You're, like, his nemesis, huh?"

He shook his head, "Not at all. It seems like he knows I was the previous God,

before Urd took over,"

Asuka's eyes widened, "Really? They know each other?"

"He's aware of her, but they don't seem to know each other," Ranma said, "He

seems to refer to himself as a different race. And that the race seems to revere

her or me or whatever. What did he call has race? Ass-Guard. Hm, Ass-Guard?

Homo-Superior? Is it just me or is there some kinda gay-theme to this world? Not

that I have anything against homosexuality or nothin', mind you,"

Asuka didn't find the joke amusing.

"What, you didn't like my crack about it?" Ranma nudged her, "Get it, crack,

like an ass?"

"Enough with the stupid puns already," Asuka shouted toward him, "They're

getting ridiculous. Will you please run outta material already?"

"Puns are the highest form of humor," Ranma smiled.

"No it isn't," Asuka said, "They're stupid,"

"Most people groan at them because of those stupid dime-a-dozen puns everyone

uses," Ranma stated, "You don't understand a good pun because you believe puns

are all like those dime-a-dozen ones you get sick of hearing. Y'know, like

'Dying to get to the grave'. That's just a stupid pun. Heck, sometimes people

don't even laugh cause they don't see the pun-ch line,"

"Shut up already!" Asuka groaned, "Enough with those stupid jokes,"

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever. I tried. Some people have no sense of humor,"

"So, are you going to talk to Thor?" Asuka gesture toward the man slowly

walking down the street, "You said Thor isn't here to challenge you. Is there a

reason why he's here because of you?"

"Why do you think he's here because of me?" Ranma asked.

"Didn't Juggernaut show up because of you?" Asuka smirked, "Didn't the

incident at The Vault happen because of you? Didn't-"

"All right, fine, I get yer point," Ranma muttered, "Yeah, he's here because

of me,"

Asuka said, "Oh, I think I know why. You stole his Hammer,"

"I didn't steal it!" Ranma said, "I borrowed it,"

"For real?" Asuka said, "I was only joking. Why the heck would he lend you his

Hammer? That looks like something that was really important of his,"

"Hopefully it didn't have sentimental value because I accidentally broke it

last night," Ranma gave a shy smile.

"I'm not even gonna ask how that happened," Asuka commented.

"It's better that way since I don't really wanna explain it, it's really

stupid how I accidentally broke it too," Ranma commented.

"Do you have, like, a 'stupid quota' you need fill up every day?" Asuka asked,

smirking, "Is it so hard not to do something stupid for a change?"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward her as Asuka giggled. She knew Ranma would

never do anything toward her no matter how angry she made him. It was not in his

nature.

"One of these days, something bad's gonna happen to you," Ranma said.

"Like what?" she asked defiantly.

"I dunno, like you'll come home from school and suddenly find out someone

kicked your pet cat," Ranma stated.

"We don't have a pet cat," Asuka commented.

"Well, I guess I'll hafta get you one so I can kick it," Ranma said.

"Man, you really don't like cats, do you?" Asuka said, "And how the heck did

this conversation get onto cats anyway? Why dontcha go talk to Thor? If you

broke it, you should apologize to him about what had happened,"

Ranma said, "Yeah, y'have a point,"

Asuka watched as Ranma quickly ran up to Thor.

"Aaaaahhhh!" Ranma screamed into Thor's ear, nearly scaring the large man a

heart attack, if it was possible that he even could suffer a heart attack..

Thor quickly whipped around to face his opponent, caught completely off-guard

on how someone had managed to sneak up on him like that. No one had ever done

that before, until now.

It took a moment before Thor realized it was Ranma.

"Ranma, by the Heavens, it's you, I though you were a foe," Thor stated, "Why

have you done that? Was it some test?"

"No, no test or nothin'," Ranma said. He thought for a moment about saying

that Thor did fail the test and should do twenty push-ups for failing but was

worried the large man would actually go through it. He needed to figure out a

way to make Thor look at him as just a regular person.

"I have a favor to ask of you," Ranma said.

"What is it? I'm glad to oblige," Thor said.

"Treat me like a regular person," Ranma said, "Um, I'm actually here, um,

visiting this world. I'm here to observe how human nature works and you acting

like you do in front of my presence will make humans suspicious,"

"I understand," Thor said, "I'll do my best to not give away your secret and

treat you like a normal person,"

"Thanks," Ranma said. Deep down inside, he felt really bad. Here was probably

one of this world's greatest Heroes and Ranma was telling him what to do. Then

again, it seems like Thor was the only person that seemed actually aware of what

Ranma had done in his life. Maybe the reason as to why he seemed to act the way

he did to Ranma and no one else was because of his knowledge of Ranma.

Man, ignorance would be bliss right now, Ranma though. It would be better to

have it where Thor was ignorant of who Ranma was. It held keep his already big

head from getting bigger, that was for sure. He was arrogant enough as it

already is.

Asuka approached Thor and Ranma, taking care to stand next and a bit behind

Ranma. Thor was a very large man and his musculature made Ranma's own seem like

nothing compared to his. But then again, that was nothing to be worried about

since Ranma was the living proof that large muscled didn't necessarily mean

extreme strength.

"Oh, this is Asuka," Ranma gestured, "Asuka, this is Thor,"

"It is a pleasure to meet you, milady,"

"'Asuka', her name's Asuka, not Milady," Ranma corrected Thor.

"You idiot," Asuka said, "'milady' isn't a name,"

"Oh," Ranma gave a shy smile.

Thor looked back and forth between Asuka and Ranma. Who was that girl to speak

so formally in front of Ranma's presence? She was a mere human. Did she have

some kind of special relationship with the Almighty Ranma?

Ranma noticed the confused look on Thor's face.

"See, she plays the part really well," Ranma smiled at Thor, "She knows who I

am, but she talks toward me and treats me like I'm a regular person,"

"Whatcha talking about?" Asuka asked.

"Nothing," Ranma said, not caring to explain everything to Asuka at the

moment.

He would explain it to her later.

"Hey, how come we bumped into you walking?" Ranma asked curiously, "I figure

you could fly like when I saw you flying yesterday during the incident at The

Vault. You can fly, right?"

Thor said, "That is correct, I can fly. But I can't fly without my Hammer,"

"Huh?" Ranma said, "Y-you can't fly without your Hammer?"

"That's correct," Thor nodded.

"Oh man, does that mean you walked back home?" Ranma asked, "Where the heck

your base? How'd you get back home? If you couldn't fly..."

"I walked back to the Avengers' Mansion," Thor said, gesturing toward down the

street, "It's located not too far from here,"

"Hopefully within walking distance," Ranma said, feeling really bad for what

he had done.

Thor nodded, "It's close enough that walking didn't take long,"

Little did Ranma know that the amount of time it took for Thor to walk all the

way to the Mansion, which was located in New York City, he wasn't inside the

mansion for even minute before he had to turn right around to leave. This was

because he needed to leave at that time in order walk all the way back in time

to meet up with Ranma at the expected time, noon. Heck, he didn't even have

enough time to clean the urine stain on his pants, not that it really bothered

him.

"Has the Hammer been helpful to you?" Thor asked curiously.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Um, not as helpful as I figured,"

"I'm sorry to hear that," Thor said.

"What, you weren't at fault," Ranma said, "Some things didn't turn out as

expected. It's around noon so I assume you're here to get the Hammer y'let me

borrow back,"

"Not unless you wish to use it longer," Thor quickly interjected.

Ranma contemplated asking Thor if he could keep it a bit longer and had wanted

to ask him if he could somehow get Captain America to borrow out his shield to

be used as an 'anvil' while the Hammer was used to flatted the adamantium bar as

it lay resting on the shield.

However, now that he realized Thor would have not be able to fly without his

Hammer, Ranma thought otherwise. It was not worth it to put this man through so

much trouble.

Ranma quickly shook his head, "No, I don't need to use it any longer now,

especially after finding out that you can't fly without,"

"It's no problem," Thor said, "I don't mind,"

"It's fine," Ranma gave a shy smile, embarrassed, "You can have it back. I

insist. I left it at the school. Let's head back and get it,"

"Very well," Thor said.

Together, the three of them continued walking toward the school which was only

a short distance away since they had bumped into each other so closely to it.

"Um, Ranma here says you know Urd," Asuka commented, "Have you two met?"

Asuka couldn't help but feel like the large man possessed a very kinda nature.

As large a man as he was, he seemed actually righteous and had an aura of good-

will to him.

"I know of her," Thor said, "All Asgardians know of her, but I've never met

her,"

"'Asgardian', oh, so that's the word," Ranma chuckled, "I was way off,"

Thor looked at Ranma in confusion as Asuka giggled slightly.

"Don't worry about it," Ranma said.

Together, the three of them entered the school grounds and crossed the front

field and up to the entrance. There, Logan happened to have been smoking a cigar

as he sat on the steps.

When he caught sight of Thor approaching the school, he was a bit surprised,

something quite infrequent considering how much stuff Logan had seen over the

course of his life.

The X-Men had been looking around for Ranma and Asuka, wondering where they

had gone since they were no where to be found. Logan didn't care to look for

them, believing they would be back in all due time so he chose to take a break

and smoke a cigar outside.

"Bored?" Ranma smirked, "I figure you'd be in the Danger Room testing out that

program I downloaded on the pornographic projector,"

"That 'program' you downloaded was a virus," Logan stated.

"That was unexpected," Ranma gave a shy smile.

"Gee, y'think?" Logan said, his words dripping with sarcasm.

Logan and Thor regarded one another for a moment.

"It's been a while since we've last seen each other, Logan," Thor said with a

smile,

"Not quite that long," Logan smirked, recalling that he had seen Thor

unconscious on the Blackbird just the other day. Of course, it wasn't as if he

was going to mention that to him, not if it could link the X-Men to the incident

at The Vault.

"He's here to pick up his Hammer," Ranma jerked a thumb toward Thor.

"I figure so," Logan said, "Oh yeah, the crew's expectin' to head out 'round

now to fetch the device, go talk to Cyclops for the details,"

Logan took care not to mention what was going on since Thor was around. If he

found out they planned on attacking a military installation to steal the

Molecular Rearranger, he would definitely be opposed to it. Whether or not he

would turn a blind eye to it, Logan had no idea nor really cared to find out.

"Okay," Ranma said. Getting and idea, he turned toward Thor, "Hey, wanna come

along for a little adventure?"

Logan slipped down one of the stairs from the shock. How stupid was Ranma to

invite Thor along?

"If you want me to, okay," Thor said.

"Cool, we're going to go to Colorado to steal the Molecular Rearranger," Ranma

told him, "You can help us fight off the military people that respond,"

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What?" Thor gasped, "Y-you want me to help you and the X-Men steal?"

"What, you have something against it?" Ranma asked, suddenly realizing that

Thor was most likely a self-righteous man and would never agree to such a thing.

"I'd have to protest to something like that," Thor said.

"Fine," Ranma smirked, "I command you to come help,"

Thor said nothing for a long while. His lips were a thin line as he

contemplated refusing Ranma's orders.

"Ranma, can you please reconsider?" Thor asked, almost pleadingly, "The media

are jackals and would have a frenzy at making the Avengers seems like

criminals,"

"How about if we put a brown paper bag over your head?" Ranma asked, "That

way, no one will see your face. All you need to do is cut out some holes for the

eyes,"

After a moment, he sighed, "Very well. I'll help you out. As long as my

identity shall be hidden, I shouldn't complain,"

Logan's eyes widened in surprise.

"Follow me, I'll go get you your Hammer," Ranma said, entering the school.

Thor and Asuka followed them into the school, leaving behind a seriously

confused Logan.

"What the heck just happened here?" Logan seemed to be in a state of shock.

He sniffed at the air.

"Now I know why it smelled like piss out here, it's Thor! It didn't smell like

that until today, after he was here last night,"

Thor continued to contemplate refusing Ranma's request. He was definitely

having doubts. Sure, it was a request for the Almighty Ranma, but still, can't

be more reasonable in his requests?

He watched as Ranma proceeded to move furniture around within the bedroom.

"Where the heck did I put that Hammer?" Ranma was muttering to himself as he

checked under the couch and under the bed.

"Um," Thor began nervously, deciding he needed to refuse.

"Don't worry, you don't hafta go through with it," Ranma interrupted, already

knowing what Thor was going to say. A man could only be pushed so far, and it

seemed like Thor was at his limit.

"I don't?" Thor seemed relieved.

"No, I was just messing with...I was just testing you," Ranma said. When he

found the Hammer hidden behind the open door, "Ah, there it is,"

"It was a test?" Thor asked.

"Um, yeah, that's right," Ranma said, trying to think of something to say,

"Don't worry about what you choose to do during the test. The test has no easy

answer. There's no right or wrong answer. It's kinda like me asking a question

like 'Who would you choose to save if you could save only one person, your child

or your mother? And you love them both equally.'"

Thor said nothing.

"Y'see, not an easy test to answer, huh?" Ranma smirked.

"I think I understand what you mean," Thor said.

"Um, I'm just testing your character," Ranma continued to say whatever came to

mind, slowly starting to believe his words himself, "Based on your answer

determines what kinda character you are. From my point of view, you're a damn

good person,"

"Thank you," Thor said.

"So, now this brings up another question," Ranma smiled, holding the Hammer in

his hand, "Now that you're not coming with me, do you turn a blind eye and let

me do 'evil' and steal the Molecular Rearranger, or do you challenge me to the

best of your abilities and perhaps suffer my wrath for doing so?"

Thor said, "I'll probably challenge you,"

"I like your answer," Ranma flipped Thor the Hammer.

Thor caught the Hammer.

Ranma had contemplated telling Thor that he had accidentally broken it and

recreated it exactly but decided against it. What he didn't know couldn't hurt

him, one of his many mottos. He was confident of this because the Hammer was

recreated exactly the same as the one that had been broken. It was similar to

Asuka. She had been killed but had been brought back exactly like she was, as if

she had never died.

"Concerning you challenging me," Ranma smiled happily, "I'd be more than happy

to oblige. Actually, that's the main reason why I told you. I like the way you

fight and would like to actually fight you for real,"

Thor became visibly worried about that.

"May I just turn a blind eye instead?" Thor asked.

"Um, well, yeah, if you want," Ranma said, "But then that means we won't be

fighting against one another because of it,"

"That's the whole idea,"

Ranma and Asuka were walking down the hallway, on their way toward the War

Room where they figured they would see the entire X-Men team waiting for them.

As they headed down the hallway, Beast came racing around the hallway, a

concerned look on his face. He came to a sliding halt as he almost crashed into

Ranma and Asuka.

"Careful there, what's the hurry?" Ranma asked.

Beast regarded Ranma for a moment, a bit angry at him. Ranma had somehow

infected the War Room's computer and it took a good portion of the day for Beast

to have the virus removed. After a moment, he realized now was not the time to

be angry since there were more important matters at hand.

"Where's Thor?" he asked.

Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder down the hall, "He just left, right

after I gave him his Hammer back,"

"Oh," Beast seemed a bit disappointed, "Okay, oh well,"

"Why, something the matter?" Ranma asked.

"Well, we used to be on the Avengers together," Beast said, "Logan told me he

had stopped by so I figured I'd stop by and say hi,"

"Maybe he didn't wanna talk to ya," Ranma smirked.

Beast said, "I guess that seems to be the case. Although I can't see why

that'd be the case,"

Ranma chuckled, "Actually, I think it might've been my fault,"

"What did you do this time?" Beast said.

"Is everything my fault?" Ranma threw his hands up in defeat, "Is there some

new slogan like 'Shit Happens, Thanks to Ranma.'?"

Beast chuckled.

Ranma cleared his throat, "Actually, I was talking to Thor about if he wanted

to join us in Colorado on trying to get the Molecular Rearranger,"

"Y-you asked him that?" Beast was shocked. He hadn't been told that by Logan.

"Yeah, but he declined it and was actually opposed to what we'd be doing,"

Ranma said., "I mentioned that if that was the case, it seems like we'd hafta

fight each other. He kinda high-tailed out outta here,"

"What, you scared Thor into running away?" Beast was shocked. Was that

possible, to actually scare Thor into running away?

"I told him if he doesn't want to fight me, then just look the other way on

what we were doing," came Ranma's answer, "He picked that choice and excused

himself and left,"

"Who are you, Ranma?" Beast asked, "You really asked Thor for his Hammer and

he let you borrow it, right?"

Ranma nodded.

"You didn't actually steal it from him, right?" Beast wanted to make sure.

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. I asked him for it and he let me borrow it,"

"How?" it seemed to escape Beast, "It doesn't make sense why he would let you

borrow his Hammer. It's tantamount to basically asking Cyclops to give you his

one and only visor, where he'd have to walk around with his eyes closed until he

you gave it back to him, after knowing full well you've beaten him up. How did

this happen?"

Ranma grinned, "Wouldn't y'like t'know?"

"I guess you're not going to tell me or anyone else, huh?" Beast asked,

disappointed.

"There's nothing to tell," Ranma shrugged, "I told you, I asked if I could

borrow his Hammer and he let me borrow it. He seems to know something about me

even though we've never met,

"What does he know about you?" Beast asked.

"That he and the Asgardian race is aware and revere me," Ranma shrugged.

"The entire Asgardian race?" Beast was nearly floored at the commented,

"That's, like, a race of gods,"

Ranma said, "I was God at one point. I know you guys don't really believe me,

but that's the truth. Anyway, it's what he told me. He seems to be aware of both

Urd and myself, but that's about it. I didn't bother asking questions on how or

why or whatever,"

"Why not?" Beast asked.

"Because, I didn't bother to ask," Ranma said, a bit annoyed, "It's not

because I forgot to ask about it, or it simply didn't cross my mind to ask. I

didn't ask because I believed knowing the details on how or why they know about

us didn't seem all that important,"

Beast noticed Ranma was getting annoyed. He was well aware that Ranma didn't

like constantly being barraged questions all the time. Ranma wasn't the kind of

person that disliked probing questions which was one of the reason why he had a

devil-may-care attitude, because he didn't really care much about details and

such.

"If you really wanna go ask Thor how or why he knows me, feel free," Ranma

said with a shrugged, "It's just that all the stuff I told you is what he told

me. I'm sorry if I didn't bother asking him questions that you would've asked

him, but that's because I, well, don't care to ask him such questions,"

"I understand," Beast said.

"Logan mentioned that we were slated to leave for Colorado, right?" Ranma

said, "Are we going to leave right now?"

Beast nodded, "Yes, we were actually waiting for you two,"

"Well, now that we're here, let's get going,"

Cyclops was flying the Blackbird at around Mach 2 at an altitude of over

50,000 feet toward Kaselin Air Base located near the southern portion of

Colorado. It was located in the around two-hundred and ten miles directly south

of The Vault, located within the same Rocky Mountain range.

Cyclops and Beast were in the cockpit, discussing details over the mission.

"Are you sure your blueprint that you got of the facility is up-to-date?"

Cyclops asked, "We'll find the Molecular Rearranger there, right?"

"It's as up-to-date as I can find them," Beast said, "The facility recently

had a three large generators installed. It's very easy to deduce that those

generators are used to power the device,"

"You don't think they might move it, fearing something like this might happen,

do you?" Cyclops asked.

Beast said, "That I'm not too sure about. It would make sense to do so since

it's likely the government by suspect that it might get stolen, what with it

having some form of connection with the adamantium and vibranium. If that's the

case, we can expect stiff resistance,"

Cyclops seemed concerned, "I'm really worried about this mission. There's a

good chance they'll be expecting us, or at least an attack,"

"But they're not expecting someone like Ranma," Beast stated.

"You do have a point there, friend," Cyclops felt relieved at the notion, "But

what if there are suppressors all over the place? It'll make the mission

extremely difficult. I really wish we could have Ranma give Storm that ability

to create a electromagnetic storm if their were suppressors all about,"

"it would be great, to be able to short out all those suppressors in one

shot," Beast commented, "Of course, it would also short out the Molecular

Rearranger. We can't have that happening,"

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Cyclops asked.

"Jean and Ranma and I are going. A small team like this is recommended," Beast

said, smirking, "What, you think we're not good enough for such a task?

"I'm not that worried, but you know me, it's my job to worry," Cyclops said.

"And Ranma's job to tease you about that," Beast couldn't help but joke.

"If you think about it, the mission's going to be extremely hard," Cyclops

stated, "Just thinking about what you have planned and how long you have to

execute is pretty worrisome,"

"It's not that bad," Beast said, "If there are suppressors active, we just

take the extra taking out the generators that'll supply them power. It wouldn't

take Ranma a minute to destroy them. Once they're offline, we head underground

and get ourselves the device while Jean temporarily wipes their memory of us

being there,"

"If you guys get detected and backup is called in, that is, you have to

abandon the mission," Cyclops said, "We can't risk exposing ourselves to the

government. They could very well use this incident as a reason to use us as a

scapegoat for the adamantium and vibranium thefts,"

Beast nodded, "Try telling that to Ranma. That's what worries me, that he

won't abandon the mission, not when he's this close to getting the device,"

"I'll be sure to tell him the situation," Cyclops said, "Ranma's lack of

stealth with the incident at The Vault, running in with basically guns blazing

got me to realize that he may very well lead to us getting in deep deep

trouble,"

"He can also get you out of trouble," Beast stated, "Keep in mind we actually

got ourselves in that predicament without him, when Rogue and Jean got caught.

If he didn't help, we'd still be waiting a week for them to transport them to a

different facility before we could break them out, while they're in transit,"

"I know I know," Cyclops said, "As chaotic as Ranma may be, I'm glad he's at

least on our side, for the most of it that is,"

"Glad to hear that," came Ranma voice.

Cyclops turned to face Ranma, not all that embarrassed at Ranma having

eavesdropped on him, "I've got to talk to you about the mission,"

"I know, I heard you," Ranma said, "I'll make sure I won't get you guys in

trouble. If Beast or Jean suspect that we've been detected, we're as good as

ghosts. This is an optional mission anyway and getting the device isn't really

that high a priority,"

"Exactly," Cyclops smiled. It seems like Ranma did seem to listen to him more

now. Perhaps fighting him and having him beat him senseless helped establish

some form of hierarchy.

Ranma said, "Thanks for doing this. I know you were probably opposed to my

idea of stealing the adamantium but agreed to let me do it anyway,"

"We're just trying to help out," Cyclops said, "You've helped us out greatly

in The Vault, so this is the least we could do, even though this is something we

are really opposed to doing, attacking a military installation and stealing

sensitive and secretive equipment,"

"Where does Ranma downloading a virus into the War Room's computer fit in?"

Beast asked, smirking, "Surely he must owe us something. Actually, he should owe

me something after the amount of trouble he put me through. And I've yet to

figure out what kind of program it was you ran in the first place,"

Ranma smirked, "Put the holographic projector back online after you get back

and you'll be in for a treat,"

"Do I even want to know what kind 'treat' it is you have in?" Beast asked, "Is

it something of the pornographic kind?

Ranma laughed, "You know me too well,"

Beast, Cyclops, and Ranma all laughed. If they thought about it, it was

actually pretty amusing, when Ranma downloaded porn on that computer in The

Vault. To download porn when in the presence of someone like Rogue and Jean at

the time, that took guts.

"How far away are we?" Ranma asked.

"We're five minutes away," Beast said, "There's a small plateau nearby the

base. We'll be touching down on there,"

"Sounds like a plan," Ranma smirked.

Suddenly, a high pitched sound flooded the cockpit as it was suddenly plunged

into a red light.

"What the?" Cyclops said, looking down at the control.

"What's going on?" Ranma asked, smirked, "Another plot device? Ever notice

things always 'suddenly' happen?"

Cyclops ignored the comment as he suddenly rolled the Blackbird extremely hard

to the right, so far that Ranma ended up falling toward the right where he

slammed against one of the panel walls on the right side of the cockpit.

"W-we've got missile locks!" he heard Cyclops said toward Beast, "Set off the

counter measures,"

"Whoa, that doesn't sound good," Ranma said, trying to regain his balance,

only to lose it again and sent staggering backwards as Cyclops pulled back on

the control to bring the Blackbird into a virtual vertical climb.

Ranma ended falling back into the cabin where he grabbed one of the chairs he

was falling past to prevent himself from falling back into the back portion of

the Blackbird.

"W-what's going on up there?" Rogue asked, feeling like she was going to lose

her lunch. The G-forces the group, all strapped in their chairs, suddenly felt

on their bodies as the plane went into an actual barrel roll was intense. Was a

barrel roll even possible in a Blackbird at that speed? It seemed like it was

possible.

Ranma ended up slamming against the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cabin.

All of a suddenly the right side of the plane exploded as a missile struck its

wing. Part of the cabin disintegrated as a large opening suddenly got ripped

open, creating a vacuum as the cabin pressure was suddenly plunged down to

nothing, emergency air masks dropping down from the ceiling in front of each

crew, everything not nailed out getting sucked out of the large hole as well as

Ranma.

Ranma grabbed onto the edge of the hole before being completely sucked out.

The winds beat on his body as the winds assailed his body at Mach 2 and slowly

started increasing in intensity as the Blackbird's afterburners opened up at

full power.

He looked around on the outside of the plane, Looking down toward his feet, he

saw the clouds. This meant the plane was on a vertical climb at the moment.

"Well I'll be," Ranma said as he caught sight of fighter jet following closely

behind, in a vertical climb as well.

Holding onto the edge of the hole on the side of cabin with one hand, he

extended one hand in the direction of the following fighter jet. As he was about

to shoot a ki-blast to take out to pursuing plane, the Blackbird took an evasive

maneuver as it went into a barrel roll.

Ranma held on for dear life, as he watched the pursuing plane fire a missile

and rocketed through to air and struck the tail end of the plane.

"Oh shit, now we're definitely going down," Ranma muttered.

He extended his free hand and shot two ki-blasts, one in the direction of the

plane and one toward the left of it. He smiled in satisfaction as the plane

reacted as he believed and barrel rolled toward its right, narrowing dodging the

first ki-blast and was struck by the second ki-blast.

"See ya," Ranma chuckled as the pursing plane burst in flames and started

spiraling down toward the terra firma, its pilot ejecting in the process.

With the pursing plane gone, Ranma pulled himself up to look back into the

cabin.

Inside, he caught sight of Rogue as she was standing in front of Asuka,

unbuckling her seat belt, trying to stay afoot as the Blackbird's pilot tried to

keep the plane steady to prevent it from going into a spiraling dive.

Everyone was already out of their seats and heading toward the back of the

plane, even Beast. Cyclops was still in the cockpit.

Everyone disappeared into the back of the plane where Ranma. Ranma could

easily tell they were gathering up and getting ready to abandon ship.

"Oh shit," Ranma said as he saw three more pursuing jet fighters breaking out

from under the clouds.

He smiled as he saw Rogue emerge from behind the plane and take to the skies,

flying straight toward one of the three planes.

"Oh oh," Ranma muttered as he saw three missiles fired from each plane, one of

the planes easily taken down by Rogue, but not before it had fired its missile.

He caught sight of a column of wind shooting out from behind the plane to

seemingly disrupt one of the missiles path of flight, sending it spiraling down

toward the earth, its lock on the plane lost. Unfortunately, the second missile

was still locked on. Rogue quickly went about taking out the remaining two

planes.

He caught sight of the second incoming missile wobbling in the air, realizing

that Jean was using her telekinetic powers to shake the missile off its lock-on.

She managed to do so at the nick of the time, the missile missing the plane

narrowly.

Unfortunately, there was no one to stop the third missile.

The X-Men team inside could be seen jumping from the back of the plane as they

knew it was going to be struck and it was time to basically abandon ship.

Everyone, save for Cyclops, had jumped out of the plan in time as the third

missile struck the back, sending it spiraling down toward the ground.

Storm took to the skies, carrying with her Asuka and Logan in each hand. Jean

used her powers to hover as Psylocke and Nightcrawler and Beast held on.

By now, the third fighter jet had been taken down by the Rogue, but the

process had left he way to far away from being able to fly down and catch the

plane to prevent its spiraling descent.

"Where the heck's Cyclops?" Ranma wondered as he still held onto the side of

the plane. It took a split second for him to realize that Cyclops was still in

the cockpit.

"Oh shit," Ranma said as he quickly climbed into the plane and forced himself

to maintain balance as he headed into the cockpit. Once inside, he saw Cyclops

slumped over the controls, a large gash on his head, having been knocked

unconscious when he slammed against one of the control panels when the missile

struck the plane.

Ranma quickly grabbed Cyclops and peered out the front window where he saw the

side of a mountain rushing toward him.

"Oh shit," Ranma's eyes widened as he realized he didn't have much time.

Holding onto Cyclops tightly, he quickly turned around and ran toward the back

of the plane, leaping out of it and into a free fall as the plane continued to

spiral downward. He allowed himself to free fall, angling his body so that he

would fall away from the crash, as he watched the plane crash against the side

of a mountain and explode in a fiery inferno.

The ground came rushing up on Ranma but he wasn't worried. He landed safely

without even disturbing the ground, Cyclops safely in his arms.

Looking around for troops, expecting them to be converging on their location.

When he saw no one around there, he gazed toward the burning wreckage that was

the Blackbird farther down the side of the mountain.

He placed Cyclops down on the ground and noticed that he seemed all right. The

gash on his forehead looked far worse than it actually was. This was because any

cuts on the face bled more than a cut anywhere else on the body.

"Heh, good job on keeping the plane steady enough for everyone to get out,"

Ranma smiled, truly impressed. He would be giving Cyclops a whole lot more

respect from here on.

Looking up toward the sky, Ranma caught sight of the entire group as they

slowly floated down toward the ground. They hovered down and landed right by

where they were. They had seen the explosion and looked around the area and

spotted Ranma and Cyclops nearby.

"Are you two okay?" Beast asked, very relieved to see that neither Ranma nor

Ranma had been caught up in the crash.

Ranma nodded, "I'm fine. Cyclops got knocked out when the second missile hit

the plane most likely. Luckily, I was around to get him outta the cockpit and

outta the plane,"

"How? We saw you get sucked out of the plane," Jean asked, kneeling down over

Cyclops, inspecting his wound, satisfied that he was going to be fine.

Ranma shook his head, "No. I was holding on to the back of edge of the plane,"

Everyone was about to ask how that could've been possible but decided not to

ask. This was Ranma afterall. They had seen him do crazy things before so

something like that was probably cakewalk for him.

He looked at everyone, "So, is everyone okay?"

They all nodded.

Ranma said, "Now that it seems everyone's okay, I have just one question,"

"What?" Beast asked.

Ranma gestured toward the burning wreck that was the Blackbird. Not a few

minutes ago, they had been sitting around in the Blackbird, minding their own

business. Now, they were on the side of a mountain, most likely lost, the plane

destroyed.

He would like to know one answer.

"Can someone explain to me what the heck just happened?"

new stuff 8/7

"It seems like they were expecting us," Beast suggested, "As to how, I do not

know,"

"It seems the United States isn't that stupid," Ranma smirked, "They probably

anticipated such a thing like this would happen and we prepared for it,"

Cyclops stirred, slowly coming back to consciousness.

"Damn, that's pretty tough," Ranma said, figuring Cyclops would be awaking up

a bit later than expected.

"We were traveling at around Mach 2," Beast stated, "It usually takes around

twenty minutes for even the most well-prepared military air strips to sortie.

For them to be able to respond with air-support against us means that we must've

been detected long ago we even neared Colorado for them to intercept us. It must

mean they somehow knew we were going to attack this base,"

"How's that possible?" Rogue asked, "We've coulda attacked any base. How could

they've known we were our way 'ere? It doesn't make sense,"

"They knew that adamantium was stolen from The Vault," Asuka suggested, "The

government might've put two and two together and anticipated that the Molecular

Rearranger would be needed to use the stolen adamantium for something,"

Beast said, "That maybe be the case, but for someone to be able to steal the

hardened adamantium in the first place, they should already believe that we have

the device at hand. No one knows that Ranma broke those bars with his bare

hands. Of course, from their point of view, it's better to be safe than sorry,"

"Ugh," Cyclops groaned, rubbing his head, "What happened? My head's killing

me,"

"You were knocked out," Ranma said.

Cyclops quickly remembered what had happened, "W-where is everyone? Is

everyone okay?"

He quickly looked around. After a moment, he noticed the whole team gathered

around.

"Everyone's fine," Jean said, "You bumped your head. It seems like you got

knocked out flying the plane when a second missile hit the Blackbired,"

"You managed to keep the plane steady for everyone to jump out safely," Ranma

smirked, "Good job. I saved you after you saved everyone,"

"Where are we?" he looked around.

"If my calculations are correct, we're actually fairly close to The Vault,"

Beast said, "We were attacked only around seven minutes outside our destination.

We're probably no more than ten or so miles south of The Vault,"

"So, what's the plan?" Logan smirked toward Cyclops, "We're standin' near the

top of some Rocky mountain, th'teams's plane's wrecked, and it's jus' a matter

of time before military see the smoke from the wreckage and start convergin' on

our location,"

Cyclops took a moment to gather his thoughts. He looked over toward the

smoldering wreckage that used to be their Blackbird. It confused him a bit how

the plane could possibly look like that. A plane crash usually gave away some

semblance of there having been a plane. What he was looking at looked like bits

of pieces of something unrecognizable that seemed to have crashed against the

side of the mountain.

"Storm, go put out the fire," Cyclops told her, "That way, it might give us

some time because the military won't have any column of smoke to head toward,"

"Okay," Storm said as she quickly flew off to create a small rain storm over

the wreckage to smolder out the flames. After that was done, she used her

control over the wind to blow away the remaining smoke.

"They're still gonna find us," Ranma said.

"I know," Cyclops rubbed his head as he got to his feet, "Just gimme a minute

to think of what to do,"

"Is the Avengers' headquarters far from where we are?" Ranma asked.

Beast said, "Why do you ask?"

"It's obvious that the mission's aborted," Ranma said, "It's not like we can

fly home without being detected. At least this way, we can go to the Avenger's

place and ask them to lend us a plane so we can fly home. The Avenger's are seen

publicly as Heroes, right? That way, we can fly home under the guise as the

Avengers and not worry about being shot down,"

Beast said, "And just what makes you think they'd do something like that? You

really think they'd offer to help us out?"

Ranma grinned, "Well, how about we steal it then?"

"No!" Cyclops said in a loud voice, "We are not going to attack the Avengers

Headquarters to commandeer a plane to fly back home! That is out of the

question!"

Beast said, "Aren't they aware of what we had planned in the first place? You

mentioned inviting Thor to join us in this mission, right? He knows we were up

to know good. Even though you told him to turn a blind eye, what makes you think

the rest of the Avengers would?"

Ranma shook his head, "No, they shouldn't be aware. I told him to turn a

blind eye. If you tell someone about it, that's ain't exactly turning a blind

eye to something, huh?"

Beast said, "I guess you have a point,"

"Exactly how did you manage to tell Thor of all people to turn a blind eye?"

Jean had to ask.

"I basically said 'Thor, if you turn a blind eye, that means we won't hafta

fight'," Ranma said, "'Okay, I'll turn a blind eye then' was his reply. That's

basically what happened,"

"This is THOR," Beast commented, "How can you possibly make him do something

like that? It doesn't make sense,"

Ranma shrugged. He then came up with a plan, "Hey, how about I attack the

Avengers' place and steal a plane? You just hang out somewhere. I'll come by and

pick you guys up?"

Storm came back from carrying out her task, "We seem to have a situation,"

"You can fly a plane?" Beast asked Ranma.

"No," Ranma said, "Hm, I guess that's outta the question."

"What kind of thinking do you have?" Beast asked, "Thor let you borrow his

Hammer, for what reasons, we have no idea. And now you're going to attack his

team and steal his teams plane? Do you do think kind of thing all the time?"

Ranma shrugged, "Every here and there,"

"Well, we are not going to do that," Cyclops said, "The Avengers and X-Men may

have worked together in the past, but that doesn't obligate them to bend over

backwards to help each other out,"

"Don't you mean bend over forward? What with mutants being Superior-Homos and

all," Ranma smirked.

"Now's not the time to joke!" Cyclops said, annoyed, "And it's Homo-Superior,"

"I don't get it, Heroes help each other out, right?" Ranma said, "So why would

they not help each other out?"

"Because they're usually dealing with their own problems," Beast stated,

"Besides, we're not that incompetent that we need to seek help so readily.

That's why you don't see someone like Spider-Man always stopping by for help,

because we are usually dealing with our own problems and Spider-Man is usually

competent enough to deal with whatever situation's at hand,"

Ranma crossed his arms, "Okay, so how should we go about dealing with this on

our own way then? The plane's gone. There's gonna be tons of military people

upon us. It's highly unlikely we can fly outta here because we'll be spotted and

instantly linked to the attempted attack on that air strip. I don't care what I

do or how I'm view because I won't be around long. You guys have a lot more to

worry about than I do,"

"What do you suggest then?" Cyclops asked.

"We go to Avengers Headquarters wherever it is," Ranma said, "Thor only knows

of what we were up to so we don't hafta worry about the rest of the Avengers

knowing,"

Beast said, "I'm sorry to interrupt this, but you were seen by the Avengers

escaping The Vault, right? They might get the wrong idea,"

Ranma smiled, "Then I'll have Thor tell them who I am,"

"We have a situation here," Storm spoke loudly, annoyed at having been

ignored.

Everyone turned toward her.

"Yes, we do have a situation," Ranma grinned.

Storm gestured toward a nearby mountain, "Not only that, but there is more,"

"What now?" Cyclops asked, feeling like he was getting a big enough headache

as it already is.

"While I was putting out the fire around the wreckage, I caught sight of The

Vault," Storm said, point, "It's just over the ridge on the mountain facing our

direction,"

"It makes sense," Beast said, "We are fairly close as I presumed,"

"We might not be in danger of being attacked," Storm said, "There's a good

chance the military's resources are stretched thin right now,"

"How so?" Cyclops asked.

"The Vault looks like it's been attacked and very recently,"

Ranma started laughing.

"Wow, Storm's right, looks like The Vault got hit, and it was hit really

hard," he chuckled.

"W-w-what happened?" Cyclops gasped.

The team was right near the top of the mountain they were on, which overlooked

nearby mountains. Smoke could be seen billowing out of the giant gaping hole

that used to be The Vault's front entrance, the surrounding area scorched by

explosions.

"Seems like this place was attacked and just recently," Ranma commented.

"For what reason?" Cyclops scratched his head, "How did this happen?"

Ranma chuckled, "Hey, y'know what this could mean? If you guys get spotted,

you'll probably be blamed for what happened to The Vault, provided whoever that

had attacked it wasn't identified,"

"That's not funny, Ranma," Cyclops said.

Ranma shrugged.

"There are tons of military personnel swarming that place," Cyclops commented.

"Is it me or does the chaos look similar to the kind we saw on television

before, when that vibranium base and military storage facility that stored

adamantium were attacked?" Jean commented.

"You right," Cyclops said, "What could that mean,"

"That this could've been the result of Apocalypses handy work?" Beast

suggested.

Cyclops scratched his head, "How? I saw Ranma utterly obliterate him. Ranma,

you're sure you killed him?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"So who could be doing this?" Cyclops asked.

"It's probably coincidence," Ranma said, "It might be some of his minions or

something, if he has any,"

"It could be his Horsemen that's doing this," Beast said, "But with Apocalypse

gone...well, who knows if they'd scatter or not. No one's actually gotten so

far as to actually killing me. He always comes back,"

"Maybe with 'im gone, his Horsemen'll continue to carry out his quest," Logan

smirked, "For us to stop the attacks, we stop his Horsemen,"

"Who are these Horsemen?" Ranma asked.

"Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War," Logan said, "They're kinda like his

minions. I used to be Death, but only became so because I didn't want Sabertooth

to become Death instead,"

"Are those real names?" Ranma chuckled, "What's with all these weird names?"

"What could Apocalypse've been up to?" Cyclops asked, "And here we thought

whatever it could've been, we didn't need to worry about it when he was killed,"

Ranma said, "So what does that mean? That adamantium and vibranium will still

be stolen until we stop his Horsemen? Does that mean there's a chance the base

in Antarctica would be attacked?"

Cyclops scratched his head, "But what I don't understand is that if his

Horsemen are still carrying out his orders despite his death, how could they

have possibly taken on The Vault? The Horsemen are pretty strong, but not that

strong. We can take all four of them on at once and we couldn't take on The

Vault. There's no way they could take on The Vault,"

"Well, Apocalypse has been thought dead before," Beast said, "Maybe he isn't

dead, afterall,"

"If that's the case, how come the Horsemen weren't at the auction?" Cyclops

asked.

Ranma smirked, "Seems like we need someone like Ritsuko here to give us one of

her Ritsuko-explanations,"

"Huh?" everyone looked at Ranma. Beast smirked a bit, remember what Ranma had

mentioned about his friend Ritsuko usually able to make extremely accurate

deductions based on very little information. Beast felt up to the challenge, to

see if he compared to whoever this Ritsuko was.

"Nevermind," Ranma said, "Ritsuko's a person I know. That's all,"

"I know why were attacked," Beast said, pointing, "It's because of what

happened here. It seems like the government was actually responding to the

attack on The Vault just as we were passing near it. If you look more carefully,

you'll notice vehicles still arriving. That means it was very recent, which

gives us reason to believe that this attack happened probably no more than

around a twenty minutes ago,"

Cyclops said, "That kind of makes sense. It would definitely seem weird how

they could suddenly find us and attack us. We were in the wrong place at the

wrong time,"

Ranma chuckled, "Man, I've been in those situations all the time,"

"Aren't we in one of those situations already?" Jean asked, "We should get out

of here unless we want to get spotted and blamed for this,"

Beast scratched his chin, "I really wonder who's behind this. If it is his

Horsemen, then that should mean they've been somehow worked on and given

improvements right before Apocalypse's death,"

Cyclops asked, "You think they came here to steal the adamantium?"

"That's my guess," Beast said, "But for them to do so, they'd need a Molecular

Rearranger to manipulate the adamantium so they could steal it in the first

place,"

"Where could they have gotten it?" Ranma asked, "If the device was stolen from

around here, wouldn't you know about it?"

Beast nodded, "We'd know about it, if it was stolen from around here. But you

need to take into consideration that other places may have it. They could also

be found in other countries, and if that happens, we might not know about such

an attack, not unless we were actually looking for it,"

"I don't understand, wouldn't we hear about it on the news or something?"

Ranma asked.

Beast shook his head, "Not for the theft of such a device, no. It top secret.

It'll be equivalent to the news reporting that a military installation was

attacked and an alien spacecraft was stolen in the process. There'll be a cover-

up,"

Cyclops gestured, "The Vault and its location is actually secret to the

public. The incident that happened in there when we were in it, the public will

never know about it. Just like now. What happened here won't be on the news. Of

course, if Beast looked around, he'd find out about it nonetheless,"

"Thanks," Beast smiled, flattered at Cyclops' confidence in Beast's abilities.

"Nightcrawler," Cyclops said.

"Yes?" Nightcrawler stepped forward.

"Assuming that there is a chance that whoever that attacked The Vault has a

Molecular Rearranger in their possession, there could be a chance that the

adamantium from there was stolen," Cyclops said, "However, we don't know for

sure if it's been stolen or not, I want you to-"

"Teleport in and check around?" Nightcrawler finished for him.

Cyclops nodded, "Yes, can you do that?"

"No problem," Nightcrawler said.

"Thanks, and be careful," Cyclops said, "It's really easy for someone to

distinguish that you're from the X-Men if they catch you snooping around in

there,"

"I know," Nightcrawler said, "I'll be extra careful,"

"Here a question, if Nightcrawler can teleport in there, why didn't he do that

in the first place, to get Jean and Rogue out?" Ranma asked, "Doesn't he have

that ability where he can teleport people as well as himself?"

Nightcrawler said, "It would've been all too easy. But you need to remember

that the place is made of adamantium, I can't teleport through that,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "I guess it makes sense,"

Cyclops said to Nightcrawler, "Good luck,"

"Be back in a sec," Nightcrawler teleported.

The team waited patiently before Nightcrawler suddenly reappeared a few

minutes later.

"The adamantium is gone," he said, "The walls, the holding cells, they're all

gone on the inside. All I saw were concrete walls and floors and ceilings,"

"Hm, I wouldn't be surprised," Beast stated, "A good portion of The Vault is

adamantium-lined, and not made completely of adamantium. What you see is

probably what's left behind after the adamantium was stripped from the walls and

such,"

"It definitely looks like that," Nightcrawler said, "Also, there are no

criminals in there. It seems like they've all escaped when the place was

attacked. Either that or someone captured all of them and took them somewhere,"

"I doubt it's the latter," Beast said after a moment, "It took all of the

Avengers and Fantastic Four to subdue them. I doubt there are many forces out

there powerful enough to contain so many of them to be taken by force,"

"So, what do you think?" Ranma asked.

Beast scratched his chin, "Something bad is definitely brewing. Just for the

sake of being safe than sorry, if Apocalypse is alive, he's definitely up to

something. If it isn't him, we've got some serious problems if whoever it is

managed to attack The Vault and steal its adamantium. That person or group must

be seriously strong. If it's Apocalypse is alive and he did it, then it's just

as worrisome, even more actually, because it'll only be a matter of time before

he unleashes whatever device or army or such that he's collecting adamantium

for,"

"We've got to bring this to the attention of the Avengers and the Fantastic

Four," Cyclops said. He looked at Ranma, "I'm sorry, Ranma, I know you're

interested in getting your adamantium and making that engine of yours, but this

is something we can't ignore,"

Ranma smiled, "What makes you think I'm disappointed? It sounds like something

big is going down and I'll be able to watch the spectacle,"

Everyone was silent for a moment.

"So, what does that mean? We're off to the Avengers place?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Cyclops nodded.

"How?" Jean asked, "We're in a hot zone right now. If we try to fly out of

here, we are going to be seen and most likely linked to what happened at The

Vault,"

"There's a town located near here, about several miles away. We can hike there

and make a call to our friends, the Avengers, and ask them to pick us up,"

"That sounds like a good plan," Beast commented.

"Of course," Ranma said, "We're gonna go to the Avengers' place, just like how

I suggested before,"

"Yes, but this is for entirely other reasons," Cyclops said loudly, "You

wanted to go there to steal a plane. We're going there to tell them of the news

and what's going on,"

Ranma shrugged.

"After we tell them, then we steal a plane and fly back home, right?"

"The Captain America Hotline, huh?" Ranma smirked toward Cyclops.

"I know, it's weird, but it works," Beast commented, placing a coin in the

payphone, "I'm not actually calling that hotline. I'm calling it where I'll be

punching in the extension that will allow me to contact the Avengers. Only a

select few actually know the extension,"

"Ah," Ranma said.

"I would actually use a communicard, but I don't have it with me," Beast

stated.

Ranma and the group were gathered around payphone of a suburban Colorado city.

The group was out in the open and actually standing around in a fashion such

that Beast and Nightcrawler, two individuals whose appearances would garner

suspicious stares from passerbys, were generally blocked from curious eyes.

Beast dialed in the number. After a moment, he dialed in another set of

numbers.

"This is Beast," they heard him speak into the phone, "I've got information

concerning the recent thefts of adamantium and vibranium. No. Yes. We're

currently in a city called Millenville in Colorado. It's located only several

miles south of The Vault. It's a long story on why we're here. It's concerning a

recent attack on The Vault. Our Blackbird was shot down. Yes, can you guys come

pick us up? Yes,"

Beast turned his attention toward the group, "They can come pick us up. It

seems like they're just done with a mission concerning an attack on the Golden

Gate Bridge and are on their way back to their base,"

"The Golden Gate Bridge?" Cyclops asked.

"What happened with the Golden Gate Bridge?" Beast asked into the phone,

"What, it was all just a ruse? What place got attacked while you were busy? The

Vault? Yes, we'd really like to get the details. Okay. Okay. I'll see you soon.

Thanks,"

Beast hung up the phone.

"What's going on?" Cyclops asked.

"It seems like the Avengers have noticed the same thing we've noticed," Beast

answered, "It seems like Apocalypse is definitely up to something, that is, if

he's still alive,"

"Looks like our teams have quite a bit to discuss," Cyclops commented, "We've

got a lot of unanswered questions. Hopefully, what they know could be useful to

use and vice versa,"

"Where and when are then gonna pick us up?"

Beast pointed toward the entrance toward a large park located just a block

from where they were, "They'll pick us up in that park. They'll be there in

about half an hour,"

"Cool," Ranma smiled, "That gives us some time,"

"Time for what?" Cyclops asked.

Ranma pointed toward the book store across the street, "I'm gonna check out

the bookstore,"

"For what, porno?" Asuka said wryly.

"What else?" Ranma smiled as he crossed the street.

"Ranma!" all the girls said to him in unison.

Ranma realized that he didn't have time to finish reading the article so he

bought it. The young counter girl that was ringing him up couldn't help but

snicker at him.

He ignored it as he headed outside had already disappeared into the park to

await the Avangers' arrival. While he had been in the bookstore, several of the

females kept insisting that he should get going and not be late. Of course, he

knew that they were simply annoyed at him and wanted to lure him away from the

bookstore, expecting him put the porno magazine down.

Boy, are they going to be surprised when they realize he had bought it.

Ranma ran through the park where he arrived upon the gathering place in no

time.

"Is that a porno?" Jean noticed the magazine he took no effort to conceal.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"

"What the heck are you doing with that?" Asuka said to him in annoyance.

"There' an article in it I didn't finish reading," Ranma said.

"There are articles to read in there?" Asuka asked, smirking, "I figure a

magazine like that would only have pictures. And how the heck can you read the

magazine if it's in English?"

"It's not, it's a Japanese magazine," Ranma said, "The article happens to be

interesting. It's an article about women masturbating and how you can spot which

ones do or not and how often based on how they stand,"

The entire X-Men team turned toward Ranma, a shocked looking expression on

their faces. Oddly enough, the females of the team seemed to have grown visibly

nervous and seemed to suddenly become a bit fidgety as they stood.

Ranma laughed, "It's an article on power tools,"

"Power tools, in a porno mag?" Asuka asked, skeptic.

"Hello, this is a guy's magazine. Of course there'll be stuff like that in

there," Ranma said, "What, you think you'll find article about power tools in

some women's magazine? I don't think so,"

The two of them began to argue as the X-Men sighed. They dared not try and

break them up because Ranma would usually then aim his verbal assault in their

direction. Asuka seemed very skilled at taking and dishing verbal punishment

from and toward Ranma.

They stopped arguing as a large plane hovered down from the sky and landed in

an open field. Many people nearby having picnics and such quickly scattered,

wondering what was happening, expecting some kind of mutant attack. When they

recognized the Avengers emerging from the back of the plane, they seemed to calm

down a bit.

"Man, that plane looks like a piece of shit," Ranma said, commenting on its

odd-looking design. This was because the plane could be modified for space

travel and looked similar to a space shuttle.

"More like a suppository," Logan smirked.

They both laughed.

Ranma didn't really care much about plane so long as they got him from point-A

to point-B. It was similar to how he didn't care if he owned a station wagon, he

didn't care what the mode of transportation looked like. Of course, he did like

how fast a plane could go. Being a guy, speed appealed to him.

The back of the plane opened as three individuals emerged. Ranma recognized

two of the three. One was the guy wearing red, white, and blue, and carried a

large shield. The man was Captain America, or better yet, The Spandex Patriot as

Ranma liked to consider him. The second person was Thor, holding in his hand his

Hammer. This confused Ranma a bit why Thor or The Spandex Patriot carried their

Hammer and shield respectively. They were meeting someone and should just leave

it on the plane.

"Just curious, do you carry those things because you consider them similar to

a security blanket?" Ranma asked Captain America and Thor.

"Excuse me?" Captain America asked.

"Nevermind," Ranma said.

The third person was a rather beautiful woman with a long mane of blond hair.

Ranma regarded her for a moment. She reminded him quite a bit of Psylocke,

sporting a very similar leotard-like outfit. The difference was that it was

black and had a yellow stripe zig-zagging down the front of her outfit and a red

sash wrapped around her slender waist. She had a small mask that covered her

eyes that reminded him of a raccoon.

"Ranma, you're staring," Asuka nudged toward Ranma.

Ranma didn't care but continued to stare at her. He wondered if Psylocke and

that woman traded fashion tips.

He looked over where he saw Rogue and the woman seemingly glaring toward one

other, as if they disliked each other and harbored animosity toward one another.

Little did Ranma know that the blond woman was named Warbird, and she definitely

had a strong dislike of Rogue. A while ago, she had encountered and fought

Rogue. Because of Rogue's mutant powers, Rogue had held onto Warbird in an

attempt to drain her powers. Unfortunately, Rogue held on for too long and had

unwittingly drained away most of Warbird's powers and memories. Luckily, with

the help of Professor Xavier, most of the memories were restored but her

emotional connections to them were no longer there. She resented Rogue for what

she had done to her and still harbored great animosity toward her. It was

because of Warbird that Rogue possessed the powers that she possessed, that

being superhuman strength, near invulnerability, and flight.

Ranma looked toward Captain America and Thor as they greeted the X-Men while

the two women seemed to just glare daggers toward one another.

"This is Ranma and Asuka," Cyclops gestured toward the two of them as he spoke

to Captain America and Warbird.

"It's nice to meet you," Captain America said, offering his hand to shake.

"Likewise," Ranma bowed.

"Nice to meet you," Asuka bowed.

Captain America looked at his extended hand for a second before he pulled it

back and bowed toward Ranma and Asuka.

"I'm Captain America," the man said, gesturing, "This here is Warbird. I

assume you two know Thor,"

Thor had mentioned about Ranma but didn't say much. All he knew about Ranma

was that he had somehow defeated Iron Man and Thor, and Thor didn't speak much

about him despite the questions asked about his encounter with him after his

defeat.

"Hello," Ranma smiled toward the blond woman named Warbird.

"It's nice to meet you two," Warbird turned her gaze from Rogue to regard

Ranma. She had no idea about who he was but she recognized him from the heroic

deed he had done.

"Where are the others?" Cyclops asked, "It's just the three of you?"

Captain America nodded, "Yes. Our forces are spread out all over the place.

I'll explain,"

Warbird spotted the porno magazine in Ranma's hands and couldn't help but

suddenly feel disgusted toward him. It was as if her interpretation that he was

a very righteous man based on what he did had been skewed.

Possessing a strong personality and usually confrontation, she had to say

something about it.

"Those magazines exploit women," she said in a rather cold voice, gesturing

toward the magazine in Ranma's hands.

"The women that get paid lots of money to poses in it probably don't feel

exploited," Ranma replied, smirking. He suddenly realized he had a grown up

Asuka on his hands, the confrontational type, just like himself.

Warbird narrowed her eyes toward him.

"Heh, that's a record, not even one minute passes by and he's already made

someone angry at him," Logan laughed aloud.

Ranma chuckled for a moment before he said to Warbird, "For you information, I

have this book because of an article in it,"

"Look, there's no need to start arguing," Cyclops said, more toward Ranma than

Warbird. He turned toward Warbird, "Sorry, but he's kinda hard to get used to,"

"What do you mean by that?" Ranma asked.

"Look, can we NOT start this?" Cyclops said, "There are more pressing

matters,"

Ranma shrugged.

"Come on," Captain America headed back into the plane, "Let's discuss things.

We've got a lot to talk about,"

"My sentiments exactly," Cyclops said as he and the others followed Captain

America into the plane.

After a short while, the plane took off, heading toward New York.

"The attack on the Golden Gate Bridge was indeed a ruse," Captain America

said, "While we were responding to it, The Vault had been attacked and all of

its adamantium stolen,"

The X-Men looked at one another. It seemed like while the Avengers were busy

dealing with an attack on the Golden Gate Bridge, the X-Men almost accidentally

stumbled upon an attack on The Vault had they been in the area about a half hour

earlier,"

Everyone was inside the Avengers' plane as it flew on autopilot toward New

York. Everyone was gathered within the cabin area.

"This is bad," Captain America didn't want to admit, "There are many thefts

pertaining to adamantium,"

"Well, it seems we're on the same level," Cyclops said, "You're aware of the

correlation between the thefts as well,"

"Of course," Captain America said, "It's pretty hard not to notice. And we

have reason to believe it's Apocalypse,"

Beast said, "It seems we're more on the same level than expected. We believe

that too. He's up to something, but we don't really know what. Who attacked the

Golden Gate Bridge?"

"Two of his Horsemen," Thor said, "This has been the sixth time we've fought

against the Horsemen. Every time we fought them, some base or facility located

elsewhere was attacked at the same time and either adamantium or vibranium

stolen. We have reason to believe that they were used as fodder to lure us away

from his intended target. The first time we were fighting them, a storage

facility containing adamantium was attacked,"

The X-Men assumed it was the one that had the adamantium in liquid form, the

one Ranma had intended to attack a few days ago, before they suddenly saw it on

the television that the base had been attacked.

"And we fought them again shortly after that," Warbird said, "And it just

happened that the Antarctic base was attacked and the vibranium stolen. And not

too long after that, we've fought against them a forth time, and the found out

some auction in the Philippines had been attacked and its vibranium stolen,"

She glanced toward the side where she saw the porno magazine in the trash bin.

It seemed like Ranma was right, that he had had it because he wanted to read an

article. Maybe she had the wrong idea of him and had been quick to judge. Ranma

wasn't all that bad.

Ranma said, "Wow, it seems like you guys suck,"

Everyone seemed to narrow their eyes at Ranma. Warbird took back her kind

thoughts about him.

"When we've fought them a fifth time," Captain America said, "We spread our

forces out, anticipating that he was after adamantium or such. While part of our

team fought the Horsemen, we tried to anticipate where he would be to stop him.

It's obvious he seems to be after the world's supply of adamantium and the

vibranium to make it,"

"Where did you guys go?" Ranma asked, "Where did you guys think he would

attack?"

"We went to The Vault, believing he would steal the adamantium from there,"

came Captain America's answer, "That was when we found you,"

"Oh, so that's why I only saw three of you, even though the Avengers' group is

larger," Ranma stated.

Captain America nodded, "Yes. The Fantastic Four was elsewhere, trying to

anticipate an attack as well. Surely you guys have caught on to what's going on

and started trying to anticipate where his attacks would be,"

Cyclops said nothing for a moment. No one knew they had been at The Vault at

the time.

"We've noticed this as well," Ranma said, figuring Cyclops had a problem with

lying, "We've noticed there seems to be a theft of these components as well. We,

um, hung around Kaselin Air Base, but nothing happened.

"Why there?" Captain America asked.

"We, um, wanted to protect the Molecular Rearranger," Ranma said, "There's a

connection with adamantium. We figure that now that he has adamantium, maybe he

needed to device to manipulate the adamantium into whatever he wants,"

"Well, that was the right idea," Captain America, "It's too bad the base that

had it you were watching over wasn't the one that was attacked. A base up in

Canada had been attacked and the device stolen from there while we were all

scattered about trying to anticipate his attack,"

Ranma smirked, "Damn, this Apocalypse guy's really smart it seems,"

"He's got the element of surprise on his side," Captain America said, "There

are many locations where adamantium and vibranium can be found and stolen. Our

forces can only cover so much area. The attacks are quick, and usually, by the

time we respond, he's gone. We almost got him once when we anticipated a

transport ship that was carrying adamantium. It had been in transit from

Madripoor toward the United States. Unfortunately, it had been attacked and the

adamantium stolen before we made it,"

The X-Men looked at one another. They believe it referred to the adamantium

they had missed acquiring by several hours when Ranma and Jean infiltrated the

Embassy in Madripoor, only to find it had been transported out of the palce

earlier.

"Wow, it seems like the time I beat the crap outta him at the auction house

was the only time he and a team had been at the same place at the same time,"

Ranma commented.

"You've defeated him?" Thor asked, "Surely, something like that would be an

easy task for you,"

Ranma smirked, actually wanting to tell Thor to quit sucking up to him but

decided not to. He was among his peers and it would be embarrassing to him.

"Yea, I beat him," Ranma shrugged, "or so I thought. I just smacked him around

a few times and blew him up. Seems like I should've stayed around to make sure

he was killed,"

"A lot of people are worried about what might occur," Captain America said,

"We've got word that even people like Magneto are trying to find him and stop

him. Everyone knows he is up to something and something really big and want to

stop him before he unleashes whatever weapon or army he is creating,"

"Wow, that explains why we bumped Magneto and the others when we were in the

Philippines," Ranma commented.

"You bumped into Magneto?" Thor asked.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, and a few others. Nothing much to worry about,"

The Avengers looked at one another.

"Looks, we need to figure out where Apocalypse is going to strike next,"

Captain America said.

"How do you know he's even alive?" Ranma asked, "For all we know, I killed him

and his Horsemen are carrying out his task of acquiring without him, even though

he's dead,"

"He's been believed to have been dead before," Cyclops said, "Perhaps it was

wishful thinking on our part in believing that he could've been killed by your

hand, but there's no real telling if that was the case,"

Captain America said, "He's very much alive and is currently still going about

collecting adamantium and vibranium. We have to somehow anticipate where he

would be and stop him before he gets even more adamantium in his possession,"

Ranma asked, "Why not take all the adamantium and vibranium and transport it

all to one safe location?"

"Because, the government is worried that doing so would mean all of the

adamantium could be stolen in one fell swoop," Captain America answered, "I've

suggested this too. And besides, it doesn't help that much because, even if that

was the case, other facilities aside from American ones would be attacked,"

"You said the Fantastic Four are trying to anticipate the attacks as well,"

Cyclops said, "Have they had any success?"

"They're currently somewhere in Europe trying to do the same as what we're

doing here," Captain America stated, "Aside from one brush with him, they're not

having much success,"

"They had a brush with him?" Cyclops asked.

"It was in Germany where a large quantity of vibranium was stolen from a

military storage depot," Captain America said, "However, the ruse-attack

combination was used as well and their forces was spread out so they weren't of

much use. An oil field in Saudi Arabia had been attacked. While two of the four

responded to deal with the threat, the other two hang around in Germany

believing that Apocalypse would attack it. Lo and behold, he did and made off

with the adamantium. He's assembled a small army of mercenaries to deal with

whatever comes his way. They have wear adamantium armor, wear built-in

suppressors on their persons should they need to fight mutants,"

Cyclops said, "Two of the Fantastic Four couldn't take them out? That's a bit

hard to believe,"

"He used his Horsemen," Captain America said, "They also now wear adamantium

armor. The didn't before but now they do. We believe that Apocalypse is stealing

adamantium to enhance his army. The more he steals, the stronger they get,"

The entire X-Men was silent for a moment.

"It may very well be," Cyclops said, "When we defeated a bunch of his

mercenaries, they wore only body armor. He probably started outfitting them with

adamantium shortly after that,"

"And above that," Captain America added, "They're outfitted with these

suppressor devices specifically design to neutralize mutant powers should

mutants try and stop him,"

"He's a mutant though so his powers would be neutralized as well," Cyclops

commented. He turned toward Ranma, "Did he use any powers when you faced against

him?"

Ranma shrugged, "How the heck should I know? I just talked to him. I never

gave him the chance to use his powers before I just stomped him to the ground.

He did appear in front of me from out of thin air though. Does that count as

using his powers?"

Beast said, "He might have some kind of anti-suppressor to prevent the loss of

his powers while all mutants lose theirs. He's pretty knowledgeable and it

wouldn't escape him to create some kind of anti-suppressor device,"

"Seems like Apocalypse is pulling out all the stops," Ranma said.

"We've dealt with him many times and this stuff's similar to something he

would do," Cyclops said, "The difference is that we know what he's up to yet.

All we know is he's after adamantium and stealing whatever he can and there

seems to be no random pattern to when or where he attacks,"

"Wow, we think like Apocalypse," Ranma chuckled, "While we were actually out

trying to steal adamantium, we actually stumble upon Apocalypse or where he was

or would be on three occasion, the auction house in the Philippines, the Embassy

in Madripoor, and The Vault just before,"

"Steal?" Captain America looked at Ranma.

"Um, nevermind," Ranma waved a dismissive hand.

new stuff 7/18

Ranma and the others sat in the Quinjet, the Avenger's plane, as it headed

toward New York at super sonic speeds. Everyone seemed busy trying to discuss

their next course of action in hopes of anticipating Apocalypse's next target.

Ranma didn't seem interested in helping out. It wasn't that he didn't care to

help out. It was that he believed that the Avengers and X-Men were competent

enough to figure out some kind of plan.

Ranma and Asuka sat near the back of the plane.

"Hey, you think the Spandex Patriot will let me borrow his shield?" Ranma

asked Asuka.

"Spandex Patriot?" Asuka asked.

Ranma gestured toward Captain America, "That dude over there,"

"You mean Captain America?" Asuka asked, "Why would he let you borrow his

shield? And where did you come up with a stupid name like 'Spandex Patriot'?"

Ranma said, "For the adamantium bars back at the base. I can't flatten 'em

because the ground or whatever I'm using as an 'anvil' isn't strong enough. If I

try to flatten those bars while it's resting on the ground, it'll just become

embedded into the ground,"

Asuka scratched her head for a moment, "What, you think his shield would be a

good 'anvil'?"

He shrugged, "How the heck do I know? It couldn't hurt to try, right?"

"Well, if you want, go ahead and ask him," Asuka said.

"What do you think?" he asked, "You think asking him for the shield would

might be useful?"

"Why're you asking me?" she asked, "It's not like my input really matters to

you,"

"What are you talking about? Of course it matters," he stated.

Asuka became slightly flushed at the comment, "Really?"

"You think I should ask him?" he asked.

She thought about it for a moment.

"I guess you can give it a try," she shrugged.

"You think so?" Ranma asked.

Asuka nodded, "Yeah, it couldn't hurt to try,"

"Cool,"

The Avengers dropped off the X-Men in the front of the mansion.

"I hope you guys have better luck finding out what Apocalypse is up to,"

Captain America said, watching everyone exit the plane, "We'll be sure to keep

in touch in case anything happens,"

"Likewise," Cyclops said, shaking his hand, "We've known that something was

up, but we hadn't been aware that it was this bad. Thanks for pointing it out,"

"We've knowing it's been this bad, but we never knew you actually came close

to stopping him," Captain America stated, "It's unfortunate that he wasn't

actually stopped. All of this could've be prevented had we've, or should I say

your friend, Ranma, known in advance about what was going in when he encountered

him,"

Cyclops nodded, "Same here. Had we known about what was going on, this

wouldn'tve turned out like this,"

Ranma approached the two of them.

"Can I ask you a favor?" Ranma asked, realizing something.

"What is it? How can I help?" Captain America asked, hoping to be helpful as

he could be if possible. He harbored no animosity toward Ranma for defeating

Iron Man and Thor since it seemed like they didn't harbor any toward him either,

especially Thor. He was going to have to be more persistent about asking him

exactly who Ranma is after they got back to the base.

"Can I borrow your shield?" Ranma asked, "I'd like to borrow your shield and

Thor's Hammer to see if I can flatten something,"

"What?" Captain America asked, confused.

Cyclops suddenly became visibly nervous. Captain America and Thor weren't

aware that they had adamantium in their hanger bay, stolen from The Vault the

other day. If they found out, things were definitely going to get ugly.

"Um, Ranma, can I speak to you?" Cyclops said.

"Keep your panties on," Ranma said.

"Now," Cyclops began walking off.

Ranma sighed as he looked at Captain America, "I'll be right back. Just gimme

a second,"

He followed behind Cyclops to a short distance away, well out of earshot.

"What are you doing?" Cyclops asked, "They don't know about the adamantium,"

"So?" Ranma said, "What, you'd think they'd freak out?"

"Yes!" Cyclops said.

"Fine fine," Ranma muttered, "I understand whatcha getting at,"

Ranma walked back to Captain America, "Can I borrow your shield?"

"Ranma, didn't we just discuss this?" Cyclops shouted toward Ranma.

Ranma turned toward Cyclops and said, "Calm down. I know what I'm doing,"

"What do you need my shield for?" Captain America asked, "And better yet, what

could you possibly need my shield and Thor's Hammer for? To flatten what?"

"None of your business," Ranma smiled. He turned toward Cyclops, "There, now

you happy? He won't know what we're up to,"

Cyclops basically fell to the floor in shock. He figured Ranma wasn't going to

bother asking, and instead, take back the request. That way, Captain America

wouldn't know what they had done. Instead, he decided to go through and still

make a request but refuse to tell the man for what reason.

"I need a reason," Captain America said, more curious than anything else,

"Otherwise, I don't think I'd offer to fill out your request unless I know,"

Ranma said, "Thor gave me his Hammer without needing a reason,"

"T-Thor let you borrow his hammer?" Captain America's eyes became wide with

shock. Now he definitely needed to ask Thor who Ranma was. It was obvious Ranma

would never tell, despite how many times he had asked and how he had come across

those powers to save all those children.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, he let me borrow his Hammer. If he'll let me borrow his

Hammer again, without needing a reason, would you do the same?"

Captain America was silent for a moment, "Is it so important that you not tell

me? You're putting me in a very awkward position here by asking me for my help

without at least telling me for what,"

Ranma turned toward Cyclops, "Can't I just, like, beat him up and take his

shield? It's so much easier that way,"

Captain America suddenly became cautious. What was this Ranma to so blatantly

indicate that he was willing to beat him up, especially after he helped him and

the X-Men with a flight back to their school. What kind of gratitude is that?

"No, Ranma!" Cyclops said, "You can't do something like that!"

Cyclops was felt like he was walking a really thin line trying to control

Ranma. He knew full well that Ranma would have no problems just beating up

Captain America and taking his shield. It was definitely the most direct way and

meant that he didn't need to explain anything. Ranma sure didn't care who he

annoyed or made as enemies, that was for sure.

Cyclops believed if he tried too hard to stop Ranma, Ranma would go after

Captain America out of spite. But if he didn't try to stop him at all, Ranma

would go about and attack Captain America as well.

"I don't know who you are, Ranma, but I don't take lightly to threats,"

Captain America said.

"Who says I was threatening you?" Ranma asked, scratching his head, "It's not

like I said I want you to give me your shield or I'll beat you up. I was merely

contemplating aloud whether or not to threaten you,"

Cyclops felt like he was getting a headache. It looked like Ranma was going to

single-handedly break an alliance between the Avengers and the X-Men just so he

could get Captain America's shield.

"I'm out of this," Cyclops said, walking away, throwing his hands up in

defeat, "I'm not even going to bother,"

Ranma watched as Cyclops was a good distance away before he burst out

laughing, holding his sides as his stomach hurt. This confused Captain America.

After a minute of laughing, Ranma turned toward Captain America, "Look, is it

okay if you let me borrow your shield?"

"You're not going to tell me what it is for, are you?" he asked.

Ranma said head, "I stole adamantium from The Vault during the time you bumped

into me for the first time. I have my own agenda, and that's to build myself an

adamantium engine,"

"So you were the one," Captain America said, "We've discovered the lowest

level missing several dozen bars of adamantium,"

Ranma gave a shy smile.

Captain America paused for a moment as he wondered what he should do. Should

he bring Ranma to justice and take responsibilities for his crimes?

Ranma said, "Anyway, I was the one that took the adamantium,"

"You still haven't told me why you wanted my shield," Captain America said. He

figured he would let it slide. There was more pressing matters at hand, like

what Apocalypse was up to. He would deal with Ranma after everything was done

and over with.

"I wanna make an engine, but I can't because I can't seem to fabricate those

bars into what I want," Ranma answered, "That's why I borrowed Thor's Hammer.

So, what do you say? Can I borrow your shield?"

Captain America found himself at a loss of words.

Ranma had a big grin on his face as he walked down the hallway, carrying

Captain America's shield in his left hand and Thor's Hammer in his right. It

took quite a bit of convincing before Captain America finally gave in and let

Ranma borrow his shield. Actually, it wasn't until Thor lent him his Hammer did

Captain America finally give in.

Thor, whom had been in the plane all that time, had been wondering what was

taking his comrade so long to come back in and wanted to investigate. Finding

that Ranma was still around talking while the rest of the X-Men had gone into

the school, Thor had been asked by Ranma to borrow his Hammer. When he gave it

to Ranma without question, Captain America seemed to finally allow himself to

trust Thor's judgment and let Ranma borrow his shield.

"What are you doing with Captain America's shield and Thor's Hammer?" came

Jean's voice.

Ranma turned around to face her, "Hey, Jean,"

She gestured toward the items, "How'd you get those?"

"I asked them," he said, "They gave 'em to me,"

Jean seemed skeptic, "Why on Earth would they do that?"

"Whatcha think?" he said, "They asked me to join their team. I told 'em that

I'll only join if they give me Captain America's shield and Thor's Hammer.

They're cool items and I wanna be the coolest person on the team,"

Jean's jaw dropped, "Y-y-you joined the Avengers?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "Whatcha think? Pretty kick-ass, huh? I have Captain

America's shield for defense, Thor's Hammer for offense, and my own powers to

cover whatever else is missing,"

Jean was at a loss of words. She couldn't help but feel as if she had been

betrayed, "B-but didn't you say that you weren't interested in joining a team? I

approached you about joining the X-Men and you declined. And now you go and join

the Avengers?"

She couldn't help but want to yell out 'That's no fair! We asked you first.'.

"I didn't wanna wear tights," Ranma said.

Jean was at a loss of words, "T-that's it? You're kidding me, right? We never

said we would make you wear some kind of outfit you don't approve of,"

Ranma grinned, "I might reconsider and join your team though,"

"Really? How?" she asked.

"I dunno," Ranma pretended to be skeptic, "Captain America offered me his

shield and Thor his Hammer. It's kinda hard to beat those kinda 'Welcome to the

Team' kinda offerings,"

"Y-you want material items to convince you to join our team?" Jean asked, eyes

wide, "You're not some kind of mercenary. We all know each other and are friend.

Isn't that more than enough to convince you to join our team? Isn't sharing a

similar dream reason enough?"

Ranma smiled, "How about this, I'll join your team under one condition,"

"What's that?" she asked curious.

"You and Psylocke and Rogue and Storm have an orgy while I watch and tape

you," Ranma smiled.

"What?" Jean's eyes widened in shock, a massive blush crossing her cheeks,

"I-I'm a married woman!"

"Take it or leave it," Ranma wondered how far he keep a straight face.

Jean paused for a moment as if really contemplating if doing something like

that was worth it, to have Ranma on the team.

Ranma's eyes widened, pointing toward her, "Holy shit! You're actually giving

it consideration?"

"What?" she asked, confused.

"I was just joking," he said, "I didn't think you would actually give it some

consideration,"

"Y-you were joking?" Jean asked.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"

Jean became flushed. She couldn't believe she actually believed him. After a

moment of mortification, she became angry toward him.

"When will you quit doing that?" Jean said in a cold voice, "When will you

ever stop joking like that?"

Ranma smiled warmly, "Probably never,"

Ranma entered the hanger bay shortly after his encounter with Jean. No one was

in the hanger at the moment which made Ranma glad. He didn't want to have to

deal with anyone else at the moment. He had already explained his intentions to

both Captain America and Jean, and he didn't care to explain it to anyone else.

It was a trivial matter afterall.

Unfortunately for him, Jean was with him, wanting to watch what Ranma had

intended to do.

"I don't understand why you intend to flatten the adamantium bars," Jean

stated, "They don't really help out much in terms of creating that engine you

want,"

"Do you know what the word 'nagging' means?" Ranma asked as he walked over to

the stockpile of adamantium bars, "Cause what you're doing right now is nagging

me,"

"W-what?" Jean was offended by the statement.

"Jus' lemme alone and lettme do my stuff," Ranma stated, "I ain't causing no

harm to no one so what's wrong with what I'm doing wrong?"

Jean gestured toward the dozen or so indented lines on the floor of the hanger

bay. They were created when Ranma was trying to stomp the bars flat when he

placed the adamantium bars on the ground.

She smirked, "You were saying?"

"I'll fix those up when I decide to care," Ranma chuckled as he placed the

shield down on the ground nearby.

Jean muttered something about Ranma's attitude being appalling. She wondered

why she or anyone bothered to put up with someone like him. He was so obnoxious

it wasn't even funny.

Picking up and adamantium bar, Ranma placed it down on the shield, holding it

in place so with one hand so it wouldn't fall off the convex surface of the

round shield.

With his other hand on the Hammer, he slammed it down on the bar relatively

lightly.

"Did it work?" she asked curiously, already forgetting that she was supposed

to be angry at Ranma. It was odd how someone could not seem to be angry with

Ranma constantly.

Ranma brought the bar up and looked at it. A small portion of the bar was

flattened slightly.

"Cool, it seems to work," Ranma stated, "However, it seems like it'll take a

while before I get this bar completely flat like a flat sheet of metal, but it

seems like it could work,"

"Um, the shield," Jean pointed.

Ranma looked at the shield.

The shield had a huge dent in it.

"Fuck," he said.

He grabbed the shield and flipped it around, denting it back into place with

the Hammer. Jean just stared in absolute surprise as Ranma did this. It was a

combinations of things that surprised her. First, she still couldn't understand

how Ranma was able to lift Thor's Hammer. Second, he dented Captain America's

shield, said to be impervious and unbreakable.

She watched as Ranma went about banging the bar again, flattening it some more

and denting the shield once again in the process. Once again, he went about

denting the shield back into its proper shape.

After several minutes of doing this, Ranma grew impatient.

"Damn, this is gonna take forever," he muttered, "Every time I try and flatten

the bar, the damn shield keeps getting dented, and I hafta keep un-denting it

before I can go about trying to flatten the bar even more,"

"Perhaps it's better to just give up," she stated, "It'll take a really long

time at this rate,"

Ranma picked up the bar, gritting his teeth, "Why the hell does things hafta

suck so much? All I want is to make an adamantium engine, is that so hard?"

In a fit of frustration, Ranma jammed one end of the adamant bar toward the

shield. To his surprise, the bar pierced the shield relatively easily.

"Oh shit!" Ranma said, eyes wide, "This is bad,"

Ranma quickly pulled the bar out and picked up the shield, looking at the

hole. He peeked through it where he could see Jean looking at him, a shock look

on her face.

"Y-you broke Captain America's shield," Jean stated, stunned.

Ranma looked at the bar that had pierced it, "I don't get it, how come the bar

pierced it?"

"The shield is made of adamantium and so is the bar," Jean said.

"It is?" Ranma asked, "I thought the shield was made of something stronger

than adamantium,"

Jean shook her head, "No. It isn't. Beast mentioned it but I don't really know

much about the details about it. You need to talk to him about it,"

Ranma looked at the shield, "Hm, I'm definitely gonna hafta ask him about it,"

"What are you going to do?" Jean had to ask, "You broke Captain America's

shield,"

Ranma gave a shy smile.

"Um, do you think Captain America really needs his shield?"

"Um, I broke Captain America's shield,"

Beast's eyes became wide with should, "W-what?"

He looked at the shield with the hole in the middle of it and realized that

Ranma seemed to have indeed broken it. Beast had been in the War Room when Ranma

and Jean entered. Ranma, although he was banned from the room, was allowed in

since Jean was with him.

"What did you do?" Beast gasped.

"Um, I jammed an adamantium bar through the shield," he stated.

"Why would you go and do that? And what are you doing with Captain America's

shield in the first place?" Beast asked.

"I asked him for it," Ranma said, "I jammed the bar through it because I kinda

got frustrated and did so. I didn't think it would actually pierce right through

it,"

"That's because both the shield and the bars are made of adamantium," Beast

said.

Ranma scratched his head, "I thought the shield was stronger than adamantium,"

Beast shook his head, "No, it isn't. There are several kinds of adamantium.

The shield is made of True Adamantium, which is the same material those bars are

made of,"

"True Adamantium?" Ranma asked, "Is that different from adamantium?"

"No, when I refer to adamantium, I'm actually referring to True Adamantium,"

Beast said, "It's the kind made with vibranium. It's different from Secondary

Adamantium,"

"You lost me," Ranma said, "How come you never explained this before?"

"I figured there was no need to explain this," Beast stated, "Secondary

Adamantium is weaker than True Adamantium. A while ago, when the word

'adamantium' was used, it referred to Secondary Adamantium. This was because no

one knew how to bring together vibranium and several other components to create

True Adamantium. It wasn't until recently was it discovered. Because of that,

the term 'adamantium' now referred to True Adamantium instead of Secondary

Adamantium. That's because Secondary Adamantium is basically inferior,"

Ranma seemed confused.

"It's just a term that was changed, that's all," Beast said, "Think of the

term 'arrowhead'. Back then, an arrow head was made of stone. But over the

years, it evolved into a metallic arrowhead. Nowadays, when I refer to an

arrowhead, you automatically think of the metal one, and not the stone one. The

term simply evolved much like the item. The same goes for adamantium. Ever since

creating True Adamantium was discovered, the word now referred to that,"

"I think I understand what you mean," Ranma said, "It's kinda confusing

though,"

"All it is is a term that was adopted over time," Beast said, "Think of it as

'dialing a number'. Back then, phones used to be rotary. That's where the term

'dial' came from. But over the years, when touch tone phones became a

commonplace and rotary phones were basically phased out, 'dial' remained. The

same goes for the term 'adamantium'. Secondary Adamantium was phased out after

the making of True Adamantium had been discovered but the term 'adamantium'

which referred to Secondary Adamantium then remained,"

"Oh, I understand now," Ranma said.

"If the bars were made of 'adamantium', referring to Secondary Adamantium

instead, then it would never have pierced through Captain America's shield,"

Beast stated.

"So I guess adamantium and pierce adamantium, huh?" Ranma asked.

Beast gestured toward the shield, "Take a look for yourself, it seems you've

proven that perfectly true,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma nodded.

Beast scratched his head, "What do you intend to do? There's a hole in Captain

America's shield,"

"You don't hafta remind me," Ranma smirked, jerking a thumb toward Jean,

"She's reminded me that several times about the hole,"

"And to answer your question before you even ask it, yes, I think Captain

America very much needs the shield," Beast stated.

Ranma reached out toward the hole and pinched the bend ends of the hole inward

to close up the hole, "You think he'll notice if we leave it like that?"

"All you did was bend the jagged edges of the hole back in place," Beast said,

"That isn't going to help. It's like a ripped piece of paper. Even if you place

the ripped pieces side by side, it's still ripped,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma said, "It seems like I'm gonna hafta use my

powers to fix it, much like how I fixed Thor's Hammer,"

Beast and Jean just regarded Ranma, wondering what he intended to do.

Ranma waved his hand over the hole in the shield.

Beast and Jean stared in wide-eyed fascination as the hole seemed to magically

close up, as if an invisible being was wielding the cracks back up, leaving

behind no indication that there had ever been a hole in the first place.

"There, good as new," Ranma said after a moment, holding the shield,

inspecting it for a moment.

"W-what did you do?" Jean asked, "All I did was see you snap your fingers,"

"I used my powers to fix it up," Ranma stated.

"How?" she asked. Even though this was something seemingly far simpler than

when he fixed up that collapsed building, but it seemed every bit as impressive.

"Because I can," Ranma said, "Didn't I tell you that I used to be God? I still

possess those powers,"

Beast scratched his chin, "So tell me, if you have such powers to do so, how

come you don't just use your powers to make the adamantium engine yourself out

of the adamantium bars? Why go through all that trouble to try and acquire the

Molecular Rearranger? Or trying to get adamantium in its liquid form? Or getting

the vibranium to make adamantium?"

"Because that would be no fun," Ranma grinned, "Shit, if I used my powers, I

wouldn'tve even needed to visit this world in the first place. I would've made

it back home on my own world,"

"Then why didn't you?" Beast asked. He had been meaning to ask him that for

the longest time but felt that Ranma didn't want to be asked such a question.

"Didja not hear what I said before? Because that would be no fun," Ranma

repeated.

"Surely you can't mean that, that you would simply go through all that trouble

just for the sake of adventuring," Beast stated.

Ranma smiled, "Why not? Heck, I don't even need to be here trying to get the

adamantium. I could simply call Skuld and ask her to develop the engine probably

infinitely better than the engine I plan on making. I just don't care to,"

"That's an odd way of thinking," Jean stated, "It seems like you're purposely

making things harder on yourself by doing this,"

"Funny coming from you," Ranma smirked, "It seems the X-Men are purposely

making things harder on themselves by not killing the villains that they always

battle simply because of their odd way of thinking,"

Jean said nothing.

"I have reasons for not using my powers, like not wanting to be a hypocrite. I

practice what I preach," Ranma grinned, "I don't believe in using powers

needlessly or relying on them. I've never really relied on my powers to get me

outta jams, not if I can help it,"

"You break adamantium with your bare hands," Beast said, "Your superhuman

strength is one of your powers. Doing something like that means you're using

your powers,"

Ranma shook his head, "No, it isn't. It's innate for me, just like my AT

Field. There's nothing I can do about those powers,"

"If you say so," Beast seemed unconvinced.

"Well, at least we learned something from this," Ranma gestured toward the

shield, "Adamantium breaks adamantium,"

"If you use enough force, yes," Beast said, "Unfortunately, there are probably

no one out there able to use enough force to break adamantium using adamantium.

There are physical limitations. Take Logan for instance, he has adamantium

claws, but he can't slice through adamantium with those claws because there's a

physical limitation. He's not strong enough to use adamantium to cut through

adamantium,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "So I guess something like that shouldn't really happen in

this world but happened because of my strength, huh?"

Beast nodded, "Well, considering you've broken adamantium with you bare hands,

I'm pretty sure that's definitely the case,"

"What about Thor's Hammer?" Ranma asked, "Thor's Hammer seems stronger than

adamantium because it doesn't dent like adamantium does when it hits it,"

"It's made of a metal called Uru, which is stronger than adamantium," Beast

said.

"Man, if that's the case, maybe I should make a Uru engine instead," Ranma

smiled.

"Well, if that's the case, then you're definitely going to have to ask Thor

for help on that," Beast stated, "Uru can only be found in Asgard, where Thor

comes from. In the Golden Realm to be more precise. You're going to have to ask

Thor about that,"

"Wait, so you're just going to abandon your question to get adamantium in

exchange for uru instead?" Jean asked.

"Sure, why not?" he said, "That is, if it seems like the better choice,"

"So, what, you're just going to up and leave our team?" she asked.

Ranma shrugged, "If that's the case, yeah. You guys'll probably have your

hands full worrying about Apocalypse and what he intends to do. That way, if I'm

looking for uru, you won't hafta worry about helping me get adamantium and can

concentrate on figuring out what to do against Apocalypse,"

Jean was silent. She couldn't help but feel sad at the thought that Ranma

would just up and leave just like that, without warning.

"Well, if that's the case, you're going to have to ask Thor for help," Beast

said, noticing Jean's visage, "However, Thor's also worried about what

Apocalypse is up to. Instead of us helping you out, it'll be Thor helping you

out,"

"Oh, I didn't think of it as that," Ranma said.

"Also, from your specifications about the engine, adamantium is more than

adequate for supporting combustion of that element, super-octanitrocubane. Keep

in mind adamantium can withstand massive nuclear blasts. Uru is only slightly

stronger than adamantium and adamantium is already overkill. Heck, if you really

want to think about it, even Secondary Adamantium is more than capable of

supporting such forms of combustion,"

"So you don't think I should look for uru, then?" Ranma asked.

"There's no need," Beast stated.

Ranma thought about it for a moment, "Okay, I guess I'll just continue looking

for adamantium then,"

Jean smiled happily.

Ranma grinned toward her, "Aw, it seems like you're glad to have me staying

around. What, you have a crush on me and don't want me to leave?"

"W-what?" Jean blushed a horrible shade of red, "I-I'm a m-married woman!"

Ranma chuckled, "I'm just messing with you, jeez. No need to get your panties

all up in a bunch,"

Jean glared at him.

Ranma turned around and said, "I'll be right back. I gotta go do something,"

He left the room, leaving Beast and Jean alone before any of them could ask

where he was going. They indulged in conversation, mostly about what Jean had

seen Ranma do back in the hanger bay.

Before long, Ranma came back, sans the shield and Hammer.

"I returned 'em to Thor so he could bring it back to headquarters," Ranma

answered the question before they even asked as to where he went, "He was

waiting outside,"

"What?" Beast asked, "Thor's outside?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, I asked him to wait for me, that I'd only use the shield

and Hammer for a bit and that I would return it in no time. That way, with his

Hammer back, he can bring the shield back to Captain America,"

"Y-you asked THOR wait for YOU?" Beast asked, "And he's actually waiting for

you?"

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, he's outside, probably still sitting on the front steps,"

"This is what's got me so surprised, how you can seem to tell Thor what to do

and he seems to actually do it," Beast stated.

Ranma shrugged, "I dunno, blind faith I guess,"

Beast headed for the door, "I didn't realize he was still here, I wanted to

talk to him about some things. I didn't realize he had stayed behind,"

"Sorry, but he left already," Ranma said, "I gave him the shield and Hammer

and he left,"

Beast seemed disappointed.

He had wanted to ask Thor about why he let Ranma borrow the Hammer in the

first place. Something like that was unprecedented. For Thor to trust Ranma with

his Hammer, it meant Thor knew something about Ranma than none of the X-Men knew

about. He couldn't help but want to kick himself for not having asked him that

while on the plane on the way back to the school. It was all because they had

spent their time discussing what Apocalypse was up to that he never got the

chance to ask about the Hammer until it was too late.

"That's most unfortunate," Beast sighed.

Ranma walked down the hallway, on his way to the library. He had wanted to see

what Asuka was doing but figured she was busy with reading her book in her room

and wanted to leave her alone. Perhaps he could find something to do at the

library.

As he walked along, he bumped into Cyclops as he was on his way to the

recreation room, a simple room with a pool table where he and Logan sometimes

played pool. He rarely frequented that room since he was usually always too busy

for anything leisurely.

"Hey," Ranma greeted Cyclops.

"Hey," Cyclops greeted Ranma.

"If you're looking for Jean, she was in the War Room with Beast," Ranma said.

"Thanks," Cyclops said, "But I wasn't particularly looking for her. I was

actually on my way to the rec-room to waste some time while we wait,"

Ranma smirked, "What, so that's the plan, to just wait?"

"There's the only plan we can do at the moment, what with the fact that we

have no plane," Cyclops answered, "All we can do is wait,"

"Wait for what?" Ranma asked, "For that Apocalypse guy to attack some place

while we just sit around with thumbs up our asses?"

Cyclops had a cold voice, "How many times do you intend to make homosexual

jokes like that because it's getting very annoying,"

Ranma snickered, "Hm, now that I think about it, you're right, that does sound

like it, doesn't it? Well, it's just a figure of speech but I guess I killed two

birds with one stone there, huh?"

Cyclops cleared his throat, "We wait until the Avengers give us one of their

planes for use. In the meanwhile, there's nothing much else we can do, not

unless Apocalypse attacks a location a short distance from here,"

"So you guys can take a cab into battle?" Ranma smirked.

Cyclops glared at Ranma.

"How long until you guys get yourselves a plane for use?" Ranma asked.

"A few hours," Cyclops answered, "They need to wait until the rest of the team

gets back to the base so they can lend out their plane. Until then, they need to

wait as well,"

Ranma said, "Oh. Well, what do you guys plan on doing until then, just wait?"

Cyclops nodded, "Like I said before, there's nothing much we can do except

wait,"

"What about Antarctica?" Ranma asked, "Are we still going there for the

vibranium?"

Cyclops nodded, "Yes, once we can get our hands on a plane, we're heading

straight toward Antarctica. We might as well continue on with our mission of

acquiring the vibranium. For all we know, me might get lucky and actually meet

up with Apocalypse there. There's been an instance where we've met Apocalypse

and came close to meeting him on a few other occasions. Maybe we might meet him

again,"

"Sounds like a plan," Ranma said.

Cyclops smirked, "In the meanwhile, you might as well go on that date with

Storm,"

Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Oh, it seems like we've got ourselves a wiseass

here,"

Cyclops continued to smirk, "Hey, I wasn't the one that asked her out on a

date,"

Ranma said nothing for a moment.

He then said, "You're right, you weren't the one. I was. I guess since I'll be

going out with her on a date, that leaves YOU with the perfect opportunity to

sneak into her bedroom and do a little investigative work,"

"W-what?" Cyclops said in surprise.

Ranma grinned.

"What, you think I forgot you've still yet to uphold your end of the wager?"

Ranma was walking down the hallway toward the library when he bumped into

Rogue and Psylocke.

"Where're y'headed?" Rogue asked curiously.

"To the library," Ranma said, "Figured since there are a lotta books there,

maybe I might find some good porno magazines,"

"Um, you're kidding, right?" Rogue asked, believing that Ranma could not be

THAT stupid.

"What, you don't think they'll have any?" Ranma asked.

"Um, no," Psylocke said, "Man, you're really perverted, aren't you?"

"No more perverted than the next guy," Ranma shrugged, "I just happen to not

care what you guys think,"

Both girls glared at Ranma.

"Hey, you guys banned me from the War Room and the Danger Room," Ranma said,

"I need something else to keep myself occupied,"

Psylocke asked, "And just what do you mean by 'occupied'? As in looking at

porno or as in, well..."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ranma grinned.

"If we let you back into the War Room and Danger Room, will you not look at

porno?" Psylocke asked, blushing slightly.

Ranma shook his head, "No,"

"You're incorrigible," Rogue stated.

"So?" Ranma said.

Rogue let out an annoyed breath and stormed away. She so wanted to hit Ranma

but knew it was useless. He was too guarded and no attack would work against

him. She had seen what Ranma was capable of and knew that she was no match for

him. She had a funny feeling that Ranma would not hesitate to put her in an

uncompromising position, like hit her sleep pressure point and strip her naked

and tie her against a telephone pole for when she woke up.

Psylocke suddenly realized that she was now alone with Ranma.

"So," she tried to think of something.

"Hm?" he asked.

Think of something to say, she thought. He may be a jerk, but he's not that

much of a jerk. Everyone has their quirks. Logan's a killer. Cyclops is uptight.

Rogue is as subtle as a sledgehammer. And so on. Ranma happens to be more

obnoxious than anyone on the planet but that was about it.

"Didja know rocks are alive?" Ranma said from out of the blue, "They happen to

move REALLY slow,"

Psylocke cast Ranma an odd glance.

Ranma gave a shy smile as he scratched his head, "I dunno, it was the first

thing that popped up in my head,"

After a moment, Psylocke giggled. That was something that was definitely

unexpected. That was something about Ranma she had to admit, that he was

unpredictable and definitely kept her on her toes.

"Rogue seems pissed at me, huh?" Ranma asked.

"No more angrier than usual," Psylocke commented, "You seem to really know how

to push her buttons and everyone else's buttons for some odd reason,"

Ranma said, "Maybe that's my mutant power,"

Psylocke giggled.

"You help the team out a lot," Psylocke stated.

"I guess," Ranma said, "I help out with what I can. It seems like you guys

don't really need my help anyway so I try and stay out of the way,"

There was a moment of awkward silence. Ranma seemed to be unfazed by it while

Psylocke felt the need to fill it with some form of conversation. She wasn't

doing anything at the moment so she had nowhere to go to. She, much like

everyone else, could do nothing but wait.

"So...we've yet to go on a date," she said for conversational sake, unaware

that she would say something like that until after she had said it.

"W-what?" Ranma was surprised.

They had been on a date that had been cut short so Psylocke naturally figured

they would go about it a second time. And hopefully, it won't be interrupted

this time around like last time.

Ranma tried to think of something to say.

"Um, no can do," he said.

"Oh?" she asked.

"Um, that's because I've already asked Storm out," he said, not even realizing

what he was saying, "If we're gonna go out again, you're gonna hafta wait,"

Psylocke found herself at a loss of words. She had Ranma had JUST been on a

supposed date and Ranma already went out and asked someone else out? How dare

he!

"Hm, I guess I shouldn'tve said that, huh?" Ranma gave a shy smile.

Psylocke seemed very angry, "Well, since it seems like you're interested in

dating Storm, go right ahead and have some fun,"

"Um, okay," Ranma said, wondering why Psylocke was angry all of a sudden. He

WAS telling the truth. What was with women anyway? If he lied, they would get

angry because he was lying. If he told them the truth, they would get angry

because they didn't wan to hear the truth.

He watched as Psylocke basically stormed away from him much like Rogue.

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling like he was getting a headache.

At that moment, Jean happened to be walking down the hallway. She had been on

her way to the rec-room to see how Cyclops' and Logan's pool game was going and

keep them company.

She had been walking backwards, wondering why Psylocke had stormed past her in

such a huff and almost ended up bumping into Ranma.

"What'd you say to Psylocke that got her so angry all of a sudden?" she asked

Ranma.

"Why does everyone automatically assume I'm at fault?" Ranma asked, not all

that amused.

"Okay, fine, why do you think she's angry?" Jean asked, paraphrasing herself.

"I think it was something I said,"

new stuff 8/19

Ranma was walking down the hallway on his way to his room. It turned out that

he, once again, accidentally downloaded a virus onto the library's computer when

he was surfing for porn. He decided not to stay around and get in trouble and

simply turned the computer off and left.

At that moment, Storm rounded the corner, carrying with her a hamper full of

clothes. She had been momentarily distracted and ended up dropping her hamper to

the ground when she bumped into Ranma.

"Oops, sorry," Ranma said, grabbing Storm's arm before she fell.

"Um, thanks," she said, feeling a bit embarrassed. Her mind had been wandering

which led her to bumping into Ranma like that.

Looking down, she realized her clothes were all spread out on the floor around

her. A horrible shade of red crossed her cheeks as Ranma bent down and picked up

one of her bras.

"Ooh, kinky," Ranma grinned, "It's all frilly and such. I never knew such a

tough woman wore such feminine bras,"

"Give those back!" she said as she took a quick swipe at grabbing them from

his hands.

All Ranma did was raise his hand, making her swipe at nothing but air. He

raised his hand straight up over his head, making Storm instantly realize that

she would have to jump up to retrieve her unmentionables.

Storm tried to punch Ranma hard in the gut, to cause him to keel over and

learn his lesson about teasing her as well as get her bra back. To her surprise,

Ranma simply leaned back and dodged the attack.

"Even if you did punch me, you'll probably end up breaking your hand," Ranma

smiled.

She glared at him. To her surprise, Ranma smiled warmly and handed back her

bra and proceeded to pick up the other clothes that lay all over the ground.

"Seems like you're doing laundry," he said, "Here, I'll help you pick your

clothes up,"

"I'm fine, thank you," she said in an annoyed voice, trying to hide her

embarrassment. She quickly swiped up all her unmentionables before Ranma could

'help her' any more than need be.

Ranma couldn't help but feel disappointed. He figured that would have been the

perfect time to 'accidentally' see what kind of panties she tended to wear.

Unfortunately, because of the way the pile of clothes fell down, he saw none of

her underwear before she quickly scooped her clothes back up into the hamper

basket.

"You guys got a laundry room at this place?" he asked, "I don't remember

seeing one,"

"Yes, but all of the washing machines are in use. I'm on my way to the

Laundromat," Storm said.

"Oh," he said, "Okay,"

"Now, if you'll excuse me," she began walking away.

"I'll keep you company," Ranma followed her. He figured he and she could grab

a quick bite to eat and call it a date. He was very well aware that he had asked

her out and wanted to get the date done and over with.

"No thanks, I'll be fine," Storm said coldly.

"We can grab a quick bite to eat and call it a date," Ranma said, "How about

it?"

"Who says I've accepted your proposal?" Storm asked, "You may have asked me

out on a date earlier, but I never said I accepted,"

Ranma smiled, "True. Okay, then if you don't want me coming along, then I'll

assume you're not interested in a date and go about my business and do something

else,"

He figured that would be even better. That would mean all he would need to

worry about was his expected date with Psylocke since their first date had been

interrupted and Psylocke didn't consider their date a date.

"What, I'm just going to do my laundry," she said, "What kind of date is

that?"

"A date is a date," Ranma said, "We can grab a quick bite to eat and eat

there. Besides, it'd be a good plan. I need to wash my clothes too. I don't like

wearing Cyclops' clothes afterall,"

He figured that would be a good idea. That way, he won't have to have Asuka

tag along like he originally wanted since they wouldn't be doing something like

going to a fancy restaurant that would most likely have some kind of romantic

atmosphere that could lead to things he didn't want happening. Because they were

doing nothing but just eating while doing the laundry, he didn't have to worry

about Storm thinking he was actually interested in her and wanting to see if

their relationship could actually expand on what they have now.

Also, it would give him a chance to find out what kind of underwear Storm

liked to wear. He would simply peek over as she threw her clothes in the washing

machine and she would never suspect a thing.

"Well, if you really want, I guess," she said, shrugged. She couldn't help

feel a bit disappointed. She had been thinking about accepting Ranma's date when

she had been walking down the hallway, wondering they might go to for their

official date. Thinking about that kept her distracted which led her

accidentally bumping into him.

Ranma smiled, "Cool. I'll be right back, I'll go get my own clothes. It's a

laundry date then,"

Storm said nothing, unable to think of anything proper to say in such a

situation. Ranma had asked her out back then, and this 'laundry date' was his

idea of a date?

Ranma quickly ran down the hallway, disappearing around a corner.

Ranma entered his room without knocking. Inside, he spotted Asuka sitting on

the couch reading her book as expected.

"Don't you knock?" Asuka asked coldly.

"No, I did that, I wouldn't get lucky and 'accidentally' see you naked should

you happen to be changing at the time," Ranma chuckled.

Asuka threw one of the couch pillows toward Ranma to which he skillfully

caught. He grinned as he cocked his arm back to throw the pillow right back at

Asuka.

"W-what are you doing?" she quickly scooted back on the couch, expecting a

thrown pillow from someone like Ranma to really hurt.

Ranma chuckled, "I was just messing with you,"

He gave it a gentle underhand toss where it landed on Asuka's lap. He quickly

ran over to the pile of his clothes and proceeded to gather them up.

"What are you doing?" she asked curiously.

"I'm gonna go do the laundry," he answered.

"You? Do laundry? When has that ever happened?" she smirked, "Where? There's

no laundry room at this school,"

"Quite infrequently," Ranma chuckled, "Anyway, I'm gonna go do it with Storm,"

"What?" Asuka's eyes widened, "You barely know her!"

"'It' as in 'laundry', not sex," Ranma said, annoyed, "Get your mind outta the

gutter,"

Asuka flushed from embarrassment.

"It's a laundry date. She says there's a Laundromat near the school," Ranma

smiled, "I don't wanna go on a date with her since my asking her out was purely

accidental back then. That way, all we'd be doing is laundry and it'd be

considered a date. You won't hafta worry about coming along like I had

originally wanted,"

"What do you two intend to do?" Asuka asked.

"I'm gonna go do laundry," Ranma said, "That's it. Oh yeah, and perhaps get

something to eat so we could eat while we're there waiting but that's basically

the extent of it,"

Asuka wondered what to say.

"You want me to wash your stuff as well?" he jerked a thumb toward her neat

pile of clothes laying by her backpack.

"No need," she said.

"All right," he said, heading for the door with his clothes, "I'll be back in

around an hour,"

"Um, okay," she said.

She watched as Ranma disappeared from the room. She waited a minute before she

quickly placed her book down and headed for the door. She had every intention of

following him and disrupting whatever supposed 'date' Ranma and Storm would be

having.

She yelped in surprise when she opened the door and nearly ran into Ranma as

he stood on the other side.

"R-Ranma," she took a step back, surprised that he seemed to have been waiting

for her.

"There's no need to tag along," Ranma smiled, "I'll be fine on my own. There's

nothing to worry about. Storm and I are gonna go do laundry. That's it,"

"But-" she tried to say.

"I'll be fine,"

Storm and Ranma walked toward the Laundromat together. It was a short distance

away, no more than a five minute walk.

"I'll carry your hamper for you," Ranma offered.

"I'm fine," she said, "I can carry my own stuff,"

As they headed for the Laundromat, they happened to walk past a group of thug-

like three guys loitering in front of a tricked-out car. There was one guy in

the car revving the engine, having fun showing off his car's modified exhaust

system.

The man revved the engine to its redline as Storm and Ranma were walking by,

to catch Storm's attention. All four guys watched her with licentious gazes as

she walked by them.

"Hey, they're checkin' ya out," Ranma nudged at Storm.

Storm said nothing, choosing to ignore those individuals. She was a very

beautiful woman and was used to being stared at, even if guys usually drooled

when staring at her.

"Hey there, sweetie," the guy in the car called out to her back, "Why not

ditch the chink and come have some fun with us?"

Storm couldn't help but feel a sense of rage as she heard that. Ranma was

minding his own business and one of those guys made a racial remark toward him

and his heritage.

She looked toward Ranma to see his reaction, to tell him to just let it slide.

Ranma was probably unused to something like that, he being from Japan and such.

But since they were in America, people tended to use their words more freely.

Ranma ignored the remark and continued on. Storm followed after him, surprised

at his display of self-control.

"I'm proud that you didn't sink to their level and start a fight with them,"

she said.

"They're not worth it," Ranma shrugged.

Arriving at the Laundromat, the entered together, Ranma holding the door open

for Storm. The gesture wasn't lost on Storm. She noticed there seemed to be a

gentlemanly sense of ethics to him that even Ranma didn't seem to be aware of.

She noticed that there was this sense of nobility to Ranma that reminded her

of a man she knew that went by the name of Black Panther.

She took back those thoughts when saw Ranma adjusting himself as if his

manhood had veered a bit too far off to the left path and needed to be gently

moved back onto its proper path.

Inside, they noticed that the place was relatively empty.

"It's hot in here," Ranma stated. This was because of the heat being generated

by the clothes dryers that were on made the interior a good ten degrees hotter

than outside.

Storm smirked, "You get used to it,"

She looked around to see who was at the Laundromat. When she noticed a

familiar face, the color drained from her face. Since she did her laundry at

constant basis, she got to know some of the regulars that frequented the

Laundromat around the same time and interval as herself.

"Something the matter?" Ranma asked, noticing Storm's distress.

"Um, let's come back later," she quickly turned around for the door.

"Hey, Ororo," a short stock middle-aged African America woman caught sight of

her. Ranma assumed that Storm and the woman knew each other.

"Hey, Nana," Storm said toward a middle-aged woman that was sitting on a chair

in one corner of the Laundromat.

Storm wanted to kick herself. She forgot that Nana would be there. Nana was a

woman she befriended when they found out that they frequented the Laundromat at

the same time. They were good friends and usually enjoyed each other's company

conversing with one another until they were done with their loads. It would be

no different this time around except Ranma was with her.

Nana, more than twice Storm's age, treated Storm as if she was one of her

daughters. Storm never minded because it was nice having a motherly figure in

her life, even if it was only on a weekly basis, but she knew that today she

would come to regret that relationship.

"My, who might this strapping young man be?" the woman named Nana said,

regarding Ranma intently.

"Hi, I'm Ranma," Ranma bowed.

"Ah, a polite young man, too," the woman smiled warmly, "I'm Jusefene, but you

can call me 'Nana'. Everyone does,"

"It's nice t'meetcha, Nana," Ranma said.

"You two together?" Nana asked Ranma, gesturing toward Storm and him.

"Um, yeah, I guess," he said. They were together there to do laundry afterall.

"Hallelujah," Nana said happily as she turned toward Storm, "Well, it's about

time you finally got yourself a boyfriend. I was beginning to wonder if you'll

ever find yourself a good man to settle down with,"

"Nana," Storm became visibly embarrassed.

"You two know each other?" Ranma asked, smirking.

Nana nodded, "We've known each other for a while, son. She comes here at the

same time every week, and so do I. She reminds me much of my daughter when she

was alive. God rest her soul,"

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Ranma said.

Ranma realized that Nana seemed to see Storm as the daughter she had lost.

That was probably why she seemed to act almost motherly toward Storm.

"So, how long have you two been seeing each other?" Nana asked curiously

toward Ranma. Ranma couldn't help but feel like he was being scrutinized by a

woman watching out for her own daughter. It made him wonder if this was how it

would feel to meet Storm's real mother, whoever or wherever she might be.

"Nana," Storm said, "T-there's no need to ask such probing questions,"

Ranma decided he might as well play along. It seems like the woman felt

genuinely happy to see Storm with someone so he might as well play the part.

"We've met a few days ago," Ranma answered truthfully.

Storm cast Ranma a desperate glance, as if trying to silently tell him to

'shut his trap and not say anything and leave the explaining to her'.

Nana smiled, "So tell me, how'd you two meet?"

Ranma smiled, "I was visiting around where she lives one night. I saw her with

a buncha friends but never spoke her. All I remember was seeing her and wanting

to get to know her. I ended up talking to her for the first time the following

day. I was awe-struck by her beauty when I saw her up close. This was because

the first time I saw her, I saw her from afar and it was late at night,"

Storm blushed a deep shade of red. Was Ranma telling the truth? They had met

the first time but never spoke until the following day. Was what Ranma was

saying true, that he really wanted to get to know her upon first seeing her?

"Well, you two make a lovely couple," Nana commented, "I'm sure you two'll be

very happy together. I'm sure of it, I can tell,"

"Y-you think so?" Storm had to ask.

"Of course," Nana smiled, "I'm a very good judge of character and this guy's

quite a catch,"

"Man, she's so cool," Ranma jerked a thumb toward Nana.

"So, what do you do, sonny?" Nana asked.

"Whatcha mean? Like work?" he asked.

She nodded. Storm said nothing, curious as well. What did Ranma do anyway?

"I'm a sensei," Ranma said, "I teach Anything-Goes Martial Arts. I also own a

chain of martial arts equipment stores. I recently gave my dojo to a student of

mine to take over. Nowadays, I travel and see places since money really isn't

much of an issue,"

"My, handsome and kind and rich," Nana nudged at Storm, "You found yourself a

man that can not only protect you, but can also support you,"

"Nana," Storm blushed again. She couldn't believe how embarrassed she was. She

really wanted to tell Nana to be quiet but couldn't bring herself to do so. To

her, it would basically be like telling her own mother to shut up.

"So tell me some stuff about her," Ranma asking curiously, smirking.

Nana stated, "You better watch out if you ever get her angry at you, she can

have quite the temper. It usually takes her a long time to forgive someone

even if they do something wrong by accident. If you ever get her angry at you,

and she forgives you, then that means she likes you,"

Storm blushed even more red, "W-w-what makes y-you think that's the case?"

Ranma looked at Storm. She had forgiven some of his antics on several

occasions. Heck, she didn't even hold a grudge against him even after she had

been told by the others of some of the stuff he had done, like accidentally

letting all those criminals free in The Vault when he had downloaded a virus by

accident on its computers. What could that mean? Did she like him?

"It took her a month to forgive me when I was helping her out with the laundry

and accidentally ripped one of her shirts while I was taking it out of the

drier," Nana chuckled, "She's very hard to forgive, even for something

completely accidental,"

Ranma scratched his head, "So what does it mean, if she forgives you within,

say, an hour of doing something bad,"

"What, you said something that made her really angry and she forgave you?"

Nana asked, shocked.

"Yeah," Ranma said.

"Wow, she must really like you then," Nana smiled warmly.

"We best be going now. We've got clothes to wash," Storm jumped in, mortified.

Nana was putting fool thoughts in Ranma's head, making it seem like she had

feelings for him when she didn't.

"I have no idea what she's talking about," she added.

She grabbed Ranma's hand and tried to pull him away from Nana but Ranma didn't

budge. He kept his arm taut, making Storm feel as trying to tug a steel bridge

cable would be easier.

"How do you know all of this?" Ranma asked curiously, "Are you two related?"

Nana laughed, "No. We're not related. I'm a college psychology professor so

it's easy to tell how a person is,"

Ranma seemed genuinely fascinated, "Psychology, huh? Interesting,"

"I wrote a book on it a long time ago," Nana smiled, remembering her younger

days, "It had been for my thesis toward my Doctorate. Mine had been about

subconscious behaviors,"

"Cool,"

new stuff 8/20

Ranma and Storm noticed a young woman barely in her teens rocking a crying

baby as she sat in front of a washing machine. It was a rather sad sight because

she was clearly an unwed mother too young to have a baby.

Children having children, Storm thought, feeling sad. She recognized the girl.

She saw her in there from time to time, usually around once a month. From what

she knew from the conversation she had with her, the baby's father had

disappeared promptly after she had become pregnant and was now a struggling

mother trying to make ends meet working two full time jobs.

Storm was surprised to see Ranma approaching the young girl.

"Aw, what a cute kid y'got there," Ranma said to the young mother, "How old?"

"She's five months old," the mother said, "She's teething which is why she's

crying so much,"

Ranma reached out and touched the baby on the cheek, causing her to stop

crying to look up curiously at who the stranger was.

"How you doin', kid?" Ranma smiled warmly, "Your mouth hurts, huh?"

Storm and the young mother's eyes widened in surprise as the baby seemed to

actually respond to Ranma's voice as if she was able to understand what he was

saying.

"Don't worry, it hurts but it'll get better," Ranma smiled, showing his teeth,

"You'll get teeth. That way, you can eat food like 'big people', none of that

weird soft stuff that taste yucky,"

The baby giggled.

"Wow, s-she stopped crying," the young mother seemed shocked, "She hasn't

stopped crying since she woke up this morning,"

Ranma asked, "Ya want me to help you get her to stop crying?"

The mother nodded without a second thought.

"You know how to do signs?" Ranma asked the baby.

The baby looked at Ranma curiously but transfixed on him.

Ranma pointed toward his mouth, "Point toward your mouth like this to tell

your mommy you wanna eat some food,"

The baby started pointing to her mouth, imitating what Ranma was doing.

Ranma clapped his hands, "Clap your hands like this tell your mommy you wanna

be changed,"

The baby started clapping her hands, once again, imitating what Ranma does.

"Right," Ranma smiled, touching his own nose, "Now, touch your nose if you

want something to drink,"

The baby touched her nose and giggled.

Ranma smiled, "My, ain't you a smart baby,"

"W-what did you do?" the young mother was shocked.

"I taught her some signs," Ranma said, "Now your kid can communicate with you

and tell you what's got her upset and crying. When you see your kid point to her

mouth, she's hungry and wants food. When she claps, she needs changing. When she

touches her nose, she's thirsty,"

"H-how'd you teach her?" the young mother asked, "She's just a baby,"

"Baby's are smart and can understand you even though they can't talk back,"

Ranma said, "You can teach babies simple gestures and simple words and they can

respond to it,"

The young mother stared at Ranma.

"Babies can't talk and tell you what's bothering it so the only thing it can

do is cry as a form of communication," Ranma said, "What's funny is that you can

actually tell what the baby wants based on what kind of crying it does. It's too

bad the subtleties are very hard to notice so people are usually making guesses

as to what their baby is trying to say. All I did give your baby a way of

communicating with you in substitution to crying. If baby's have a way of

communicating with you without needing to cry, it will start communicating that

way,"

Storm and the young mother were stunned silent.

"Babies can talk," Ranma said, "It's just that people can't understand them

and it sounds like they're simply making noise,"

"What's yer name, kid?" Ranma asked the baby.

The baby made a squeaking sound, as if answering him.

"Emily, huh? That's a pretty name," Ranma smiled.

"T-that's right," the young mother was shocked, "Her name is Emily,"

"So, Emily, now that you know how to talk to your mommy, do you have anything

to say to her?" Ranma asked the baby.

The baby proceeded to clap.

"S-she needs to be changed?" the young mother asked.

"Seems so," Ranma chuckled.

"But I just changed her fifteen minutes ago," the young mother said.

"So?" Ranma smirked, "Babies are poop machines. You shouldn't be surprised,"

"I guess you have a point," she stated, "Um, thanks for helping me out,"

"No prob," Ranma smiled.

Ranma turned toward Storm as she seemed to be staring at him in shock. She

followed him as he walked past the young mother and stopped at an empty washing

machine.

"W-what you did back there was amazing," Storm said, flushed, "You like

children?"

Ranma said, "Oh, I love children. I plan on being a kick-ass dad when I have a

kid down the road,"

Storm loved children and couldn't help but feel very attracted at Ranma at the

moment after seeing his display of relating to children. Ranma somehow struck a

subconscious chord with Storm. To most women, there was nothing more attractive

than seeing a man that got along great with children even if they weren't his

own. It made her realize that Ranma was a great potential father.

"What, do I have something on my face?" Ranma asked, wondering why Storm was

staring at him.

"Um, n-nothing," she blushed, quickly turning her gaze away.

"Let's clean some clothes," Ranma said.

"Right," she was glad for the distraction.

Ranma constantly stole glances toward Storm's hamper as she went about placing

her clothes in the washing machine next to his own, hoping to catch a glimpse of

what kind of underwear she owned. He didn't understand why he needed to use a

separate machine since he only had a few pairs but assumed it was a female

thing, whatever it may be.

"Are you trying to see what kind of panties are in my hamper?" Storm asked,

suspicious.

"How'd you...um, what makes you think that?" catching himself before he said

the wrong thing.

Storm remained suspicious, "You seem to be paying an awful lot of attention

onto my clothes as I put them in the washing machine instead of your own

clothes,"

"Um, that's because I'm curious as to how clothes are separated, y'know,

whites and delicates and colors and such," Ranma said glibly.

"You have nothing to worry about because, you have neither whites nor

delicates," she noticed.

Ranma turned his attention away from her, not wanting to get any more

suspicious than she already is. She was a smart person and might actually catch

on to his plan.

"Nana's very interesting," Ranma smirked.

Storm blushed, not wanting to think about what had occurred a short while ago.

That was so embarrassing and she wished that had never happened. Nana had

mentioned several things to Ranma about her that would definitely give him the

wrong idea, that she was in love with him or something. Even though Ranma

definitely had a lot of flaws like his propensity for porn or tended to be more

inconsiderate than not, she thought he was a pretty nice guy if she looked past

those flaws.

"So, how do you two know each other?" he asked, "She seems like she knows you

really well. From the looks of it, she seems like some kinda mother or aunt in

your life,"

She nodded, surprised at Ranma's perception. She couldn't help but view Nana

as a motherly figure in her life but was surprised Ranma could pick up on that

based on the little amount of dialog exchanged.

"More or less," Storm said, glad the subject wasn't on herself, "For some

reason, she reminds me of what my mother would be if she were still alive for

some reason. I don't really know why because she acts nothing like what I

remember not look like her, but she kind of reminds me of what she could

become,"

"Your mom died, huh?" Ranma asked, "Sorry to hear that,"

"Actually, both my parents were killed," Storm said, surprised she even told

him that. That was an aspect of her past she never cared to discuss.

Ranma said, "My parents were killed, too. I was having a meal when a missile

flew in through the window and killed everyone save for myself and a guy I knew.

Messed me up real good, seeing my friends and family dead like that,"

"I'm sorry to hear that," Storm said, feeling his pain, "I know exactly how it

feels. I was buried alive underneath right near my mom's body,"

Ranma regarded her for a moment, "Buried alive, huh? Hm, I guess that's

probably where your claustrophobia comes from, huh?"

"M-my claustrophobia? H-how'd you know?" she was shocked, "I never told you

that. Who told you that?"

It was an aspect of her that very few people knew about. Only her closest

friends knew of that 'weakness' of hers. For someone to tell Ranma that made her

feel like one of her friends betrayed her trust.

"No one told me," Ranma said, "I noticed it just from observing you,"

"How?" she asked.

"When we take the elevator from the hanger bay back up to the school," Ranma

stated, "I notice you get nervous whenever we take the elevator. It's a good

indication of a fear of enclosed spaces. When standing in a group, you tend to

prefer standing on the outside of the group, where at least one side of you is

open and isn't blocked by a person,"

"Y-you noticed all of that?" Storm was flabbergasted. She figured Ranma paid

the least attention to her. She was one of the last people to actually come in

contact with him and usually stayed in contact with him the least as well.

Ranma shrugged, "It's not hard picking things up if you know what to look for.

Everyone has quirks about themselves and it's really easy to spot if you just

pay a bit of attention,"

"A quirk? You think my claustrophobia as merely a quirk?" Storm asked, a bit

surprised.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, why not? Everyone's got one,"

"Can you tell me some of the quirks my teammates have?" she asked, curiously,

"I know all of them very well so I'm very sure I already know of them. I'm just

curious as to how close you are to noticing such things,"

Ranma shrugged, "Okay. Logan's healing factor seems less effective when his

claws are out. I assume it's because, when his claws are out, his healing factor

is constantly trying to heal the cuts on the skin on his hand where the claws

coming out of,"

Storm's eyes widened, "H-how'd you notice that?"

"When I spar against him," Ranma said, "When we spar, he brushes off hard hits

and gets up much quicker when he isn't using his claws than when he is,"

"You're right. That is true. How about Psylocke?" Storm asked, curious as to

Ranma's views of everyone and choosing a name at random.

"Hm, well, it seems like she was blind at one point in time," Ranma stated, "I

noticed she actually takes in scenery more thoroughly than others which

indicates an appreciation for sight. You don't do this unless you lost your

sight and get it back and suddenly realize how much you take it for granted,"

Storm's mouth hung wide open, "T-that's right. She was almost killed and

blinded when she fought against a person named Slaymaster,"

Ranma chuckled, "Man, this world's got funny names,"

"Go on," she asked, her full attention on Ranma.

"Um, I assume Beast never looked like, well, like the way he does now," Ranma

said, "He didn't use to look like that and have blue fur and looked a bit like a

lion. I used to look human, right?"

"How'd you arrive at that deduction?" she asked.

"Beast wears a lab coat when he's not on a mission," Ranma stated, "The lab

coat seems like a few sizes two small. You'd think he would wear one that fits.

I notice the lab coat is very worn down so he must've worn that for a while for

it to be worn down like that. From that, I assume he used smaller and human,"

Storm asked, "But what makes you think that? Perhaps he could've merely grown

larger in size. How can you deduce that he used to be human?"

"Beast used to be human because he actually has human habits that are innate

and can't be taught or emulated," Ranma chuckled, "He does it at a human

subconscious level that probably even he doesn't even realize,"

"And what's that?" she asked.

"When girls are in the room, he's minds his manners more," Ranma chuckled,

"Only humans do that,"

"What? Minds his manners?" Storm asked, "What, are you saying that Beast acts

'like one of the guys' when women aren't around?"

Ranma chuckled, "Not quite. He acts the exact same except his voice becomes a

notch softer. It's a subconscious thing guys do and don't even notice unless you

listen for it. For instance, if I listen to a guy talking to someone on the

phone, I can tell if he's talking to a guy or girl based on if his voice gets

softer or not. Girls never notice this because they think the guy's speaking

voice is their normal speaking voice when it really isn't,"

"Are you for real?" she asked, "I never knew that. So, what, are you saying

you speak to me in a softer voice than when speaking to the guys, when none of

the women are around?"

Ranma shrugged, "How the heck should I know? It's subconscious. Get it?

Subconscious, meaning I am not consciously aware if I do so or not,"

"Oh," she felt stupid for having asked, "Hey, what makes you think that's the

case, that guys speak softer when females are around? Perhaps guys speak rougher

when guys around and the voice we hear is their normal speaking voice,"

Ranma chuckled, "Fine, ask one of the guys to speak into a recorder when no

one's around. It's pretty good to assume that that's his normal speaking voice.

Ask him to do the same with a female in the room and you'll notice it's softer.

Ask him to do the same with a guy in the room and you'll notice it sounds the

exact same as when no one is in the room. Heck, not only that, but guys tend to

watch what they say when around girls,"

"That's very interesting," she stated.

"Why the heck are we talking about this crap anyway?" Ranma scratched his

head, "Aren't we supposed to be doing laundry or something?"

"I assume you don't seem to watch what you say when around females since you

have no problems of using vulgar words," Storm stated.

Ranma shook his head, "No, I actually do watch what I say. I notice I don't

hear myself saying words like 'fuck' or 'cunt' of 'shit' as often,"

Storm cast Ranma an odd look.

Ranma shrugged, "Well, at least I try not to,"

He happened to glance over and caught sight of Storm as she was transferring

her panties over from the hamper to the washing machine. He quickly pretended he

didn't see, as if looking around the Laundromat. When he saw them, he instantly

thought of what he had read pertaining to the personality of someone that wore

the kind of panties that Storm wore.

'A leadership-type personality. Able to deal with pressure and make extremely

hard decisions quickly. Strong and independent, wearer likes someone with

similar qualities. Quick to anger and slow to forgive. Tends to be more

reclusive than outgoing. Honorable and generous and hides little from those she

trusts. Likes people who are chivalrous and displays self-control. Loves

children and would make a perfect mother. Quick to fall for someone that would

be a great father'

I'm good with kids and I think Storm might think that as well, Ranma thought.

What if she falls of me? I've already got enough girls in my life that one more

is already, what, ten girls too many. It also does help that Psylocke seems to

kinda like me and Rogue might start liking me because her powers

"Go on," Storm said, "How about Cyclops?"

"Huh? What about him?" he asked, scratching his head. He had been momentarily

distracted.

"Do you have some kind of attention deficit?" Storm asked, "We were talking

about things you've notices about the group,"

Ranma smirked. Something just occurred to him. Cyclops still had yet to uphold

his end of the wager that he lost. Ranma wasn't going to let Cyclops off easy

even though he himself had accidentally discovered what kind of panties Storm

liked to wear. It was all Cyclops' fault he was in this 'date' predicament in

the first place. He was going to make Cyclops go through with the mission

regardless of the fact that he had already seen the kind of panties Storm wore.

"Um, he has this weird underwear fetish," Ranma grinned.

"W-what?" Storm was shocked to hear.

"Yeah, I think he's an underwear pervert," Ranma trying to keep a straight

face, "You better be cautious because I have a funny feeling he'd be the kind of

person that would sneak into your room to steal your underwear,"

"H-he would?" Storm gasped, "Whatever for?"

"I dunno," Ranma tried to keep a straight face, "He's a married man, I read

about it, that married men do weird stuff like that,"

"You're kidding me, right?" Storm seemed skeptic.

"Fine, don't believe me, I don't care," Ranma shrugged, deciding to use a

little reverse psychology.

Storm asked, "Do you think he would really do something like that?"

"Yeah," Ranma nodded.

"I better go tell Jean," Storm said.

Ranma quickly said, "No, you shouldn't,"

"Why not?" she asked, "Jean and Cyclops are two of my closest friends. If

there's something up with her husband, I have to let her know about it,"

"Yeah, but if something like that happens, I'm sure Jean would instantly feel

that you were probably doing something like that to provoke him," Ranma said,

"She'd probably get jealous and think you were trying to steal him from her.

Don't you girls think like that?"

Storm said nothing. She knew Jean and there could be a chance she would

interpret it as that.

"Wait, Jean's a telepath," Storm said, "She could just read his mind and know

what his reasons were,"

"S-she can?" he said, eyes wide, "Hypothetically speaking, does that mean she

can read his mind and find out the truth, that he had lost a bet and had to

uphold his end of the bet?"

"Huh?" she asked.

"Nevermind," he waved a dismissive hand.

Storm nodded, "She knows whatever Cyclops is thinking. Cyclops lets her do so.

They trust each other and never hide secrets from one another,"

"How often does she do this, read his mind and find out what he's thinking?"

he asked.

"Not much," Storm said, "Even though they don't keep secrets from one another,

there's still a trust issue. If Cyclops tells her something and she doesn't

believe him and reads his minds to make sure if he's lying or not, that's kind

of like a slap in his face, that she doesn't trust what he says,"

"Oh, cool," Ranma seemed relieved.

"I still don't understand why you think I shouldn't bring this perversion to

Jean's attention," Storm said, "If Cyclops has a problem like that, he should

seek help,"

"Because, I heard married men go through a phase," Ranma said thinking quick

on his feet, "If she find out that Cyclops is nothing more than a pervert, even

though it's just a phase he will grow out of, then that could put their marriage

in jeopardy. It's something that's wrong with him, not her. Of course, from a

woman's point of view, she would think she did something wrong when she didn't,"

Storm was silent. She didn't want to see that happen. Cyclops and Jean were

good together. If she was married to someone and he did that, she would

definitely think that it was a result of something she did or didn't do.

"It's just a phase that he grows out of," Ranma said, "He will stop once he

gets caught and has the living crap beat out of him,"

"Thanks for letting me know," Storm seemed grateful.

"No problem," Ranma grinned, "Whatever you do, don't let Jean know that you

know,"

"I'll do that,"

Ranma and Storm decided to cross the street to the deli that was adjacent to

the Laundromat. All the would do is order a quick sandwich and head back to the

Laundromat.

They placed their orders.

When Ranma pulled out a wad of cash, Storm was curious as to where he came

about so much money.

"I stole it from Logan," Ranma grinned.

"If he finds out you stole from him, we'll probably cut a new air hole in your

neck," Storm said, rather amused at Ranma's audacity to doing something to anger

even Logan. Encountering an angry Logan was not a pretty one.

Ranma grinned, "He didn't hurt me the first time around. He didn't do it the

second time around. I doubt he'd do it the third time around,"

Storm laughed. Ranma's reckless abandon was quite refreshing. He had such a

happy-go-lucky attitude that made his company rather enjoyable.

Ranma looked over toward this small shelf that contained ramen.

"Oriental tasting noodles, huh?" Ranma asked, picking one of the packets up,

"Man, where'd they get the idea for oriental tasting noodles? What kinda crap is

that? What, they know how 'oriental' tastes?"

Storm laughed. Ranma's range of humor was rather amusing. He had a crude kind

of humor that she didn't find all that amusing but this kind of humor she liked.

It seemed like Ranma's sense of humor had a wide range.

"Um, I wasn't trying to be funny," Ranma said.

Storm laughed again. The way he said that sounded funny.

Ranma decided not to say anything.

She regarded him for a bit. She realized she had definitely misjudged Ranma.

Sure, he may be vulgar and lacked tact, but there was a rather endearing quality

to him that made her find him amusing and attractive. The fact that he seemed to

work great with children made him seem all the more attractive.

"What, do I have something on my face?" he asked, "You're staring at me,"

"N-nothing," she blushed, turning her attention away.

Ranma regarded her for a moment, wondering if he should be worried. He was

doing nothing interesting that would appeal to Storm and make her like him for

any reason. He was pretty sure that, if he played his cards right, he would end

up in the 'friend zone' which is exactly where he wanted to be.

I must be careful, Ranma thought. I hope I don't take a wrong turn and end up

away from the 'friend zone'.

After their orders arrived, Ranma paid for their meals and headed for the

door.

"C'mon, let's head back to the Laundromat,"

"Thank you. Thank you so much," the young mother said gratefully as she

approached Ranma as he and Storm entered the Laundromat again.

"Huh? What'd I do?" he asked.

The girl gestured toward her baby, currently sleeping soundly in her stroller.

"You're right, after I changed her, she pointed to her mouth," she said, "I

took your advice and fed her. Minutes after feeding her, she went promptly to

sleep,"

Ranma smiled, "Glad I could be of help,"

"I never got your name," the girl said, "I'm Samantha,"

"Nice t'meetcha, Sam," Ranma said, "I'm Ranma,"

"Can you give me more tips?" she asked, "You have no idea how much something

like that helped,"

Ranma said, "There's no more tips I can give you. That's all you need. The

only thing else I could recommend is to warm the milk before you feed her her

bottle of milk,"

"I do do that," she said, "That's it? That's all there is to know?"

"Well, yeah," Ranma said, "There's not much to need to know. All you need to

know is when to feed her, give her something to drink, or change her. That's

it,"

The girl smiled warmly as she headed for the door, done with her laundry,

"Well, thank you. I really appreciate your help. I'm glad I met you,"

"Likewise," Ranma said, "Take care,"

The girl exited the Laundromat, carrying with her her bag of laundry and

pushing the stroller.

"Nice girl," Ranma jerked a thumb toward her, "A bit young t'be a mother, but

she'll do fine now that she knows what to look for,"

"Why, what age do you think is a good age to have kids?" Storm asked

curiously.

"Right, like I'm gonna answer that loaded question," Ranma laughed aloud.

"What, I was just curious," she asked innocently.

"Riiiight,"

Ranma and Storm walked back to the school. Storm seemed much more at ease

around Ranma while Ranma seemed the opposite. This was because the more she

seemed to get comfortable around Ranma, the more he started to believe he

started liking him.

Ranma found himself carrying not only his own clothes, but Storm's clothes as

well. This was because, by habit, he had offered to carry the bag full of now-

clean clothes and she had accepted.

She's getting way too comfortable being around me, Ranma thought. I don't want

her to start liking more than that of a friend. That'll just even further

complicate things in my life.

As they walked along, they came across the same four people loitering around

that tricked out car that Ranma had ignored earlier.

"Hey, it seems like the Chink's back," the guy in the car taunted.

Ranma recalled that Storm liked a person with self-control. If he displayed no

self-control, then she would not regard him so fond as she had initially

believed he to be.

"Just ignore them," Storm said.

Ranma smirked, knowing he was going to have some fun, "Yeah right, I'm gonna

beat their heads in,"

"W-what?" she asked.

Ranma handed her the hamper that had her clothes and his own.

He had a big smile on his face as he approached the guy that made that racist

comment. As Ranma approached him, he got out of his car, standing a good head

taller than Ranma.

"I'm not Chinese so the word 'chink' doesn't refer to me," Ranma said, "If

you're gonna spew racist remarks toward me, I suggest you do it correctly, you

dumb fuck,"

"So what? Fine, if you're not a chink, that must mean you're a gook," the man

smirked, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

They faced one another as the three guys standing by the car came around to

stand by his sides, surrounding him.

"So, I guess you're not gonna apologize, huh?" Ranma smirked.

He reached out and grabbed the open car door. With a casual yank, he ripped

the door right off its hinges. He grinned as he handed the man his own car door.

In a state of shock at what he had seen, the man took the car door.

As the guys watched in shock, Ranma reached into the car and grabbed the

steering wheel. A gentle tug yanked it right off its steering column. He handed

it to the shocked man.

"Not gonna apologize?" Ranma asked patiently.

The man said nothing, stunned silent.

"No? Okay," Ranma chuckled.

Ranma jammed an arm right through the front hood and closed his hand around

something and pulled it. He ended up ripping the exhaust manifold right off the

engine block, pulling it out through the hood, the hood becoming unhinged and

sliding down the front of the car.

He threw the exhaust manifold over his shoulder since the guy not longer had

free hands to hold onto anything else.

"Not gonna apologize yet?" Ranma asked, "Okay, I guess I'll continue on,"

He reached into the engine compartment and grabbed the turbo charger, ripping

it out, tossing it over his shoulder.

"Still didn't get a clue?" Ranma asked, "Perhaps your dumber than I thought,"

He reached shot an arm out and into the actual engine itself, grabbing

something within it and pulling it out. He looked at it and noticed he had

pulled out one of the engine pistons along with part of the crankshaft it was

attached to. His hand became dirtied with oil from the engine but he didn't seem

to mind. Chucking the parts away, he took the opportunity to clean his hand on

the man's shirt as the guy still held the car door and steering wheel.

"I'll give you a clue, if you apologize, I'll stop ripping out your car,"

Ranma said.

Ranma reached out and grabbed the radiator, pulling it out, green radiator

fluid spilling out from the exposed hoses that used to be attached to it,

spilling out onto the ground where it flowed down street and into a nearby

sewage drain.

"I-I'm sorry," the man said, finally catching on.

He fell to his knees as he looked at his destroyed car. What Ranma didn't know

was that the car he just wrecked used to be a show-car that won several award at

import tuning conventions. Of course, even if Ranma did know, he didn't really

care anyway.

"Well, that wasn't so hard, huh?" Ranma chuckled.

Ranma walked away from the shocked guys and up to Storm.

"Man, that felt good," Ranma grinned.

Storm couldn't help but feel angry at Ranma for what he did.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," Storm said, "You should've exercised

some self-control,"

Ranma shrugged, "Yeah, I should've but I didn't cause I didn't want to,"

"You would've impressed me if you did nothing and just ignored them," she

stated.

"Oh well," Ranma smiled, believing his plan was working. Storm seemed to be

angry at him. That was good. If she was angry at him, then there was less of a

chance of her liking him more than that of a friend.

She smirked.

"But then again, that was rather amusing. I guess he did deserve that,"

"Argh! I can't win!" Ranma felt frustrated. It seemed like all he had done did

nothing of making her lower her opinion of him.

"What?" she asked.

"Forget it,"

Asuka was sitting on the front steps and looked relieved to see Ranma and

Storm coming back.

"Ranma," she quickly rushed up to him like a puppy to see its master.

"Yo," Ranma said, "Were you waiting for me or something?"

"Um, not really," she lied, not wanting to sound pathetic, "I wanted to take a

break from reading and came out here for some fresh air,"

"Hey, Asuka," Storm smiled toward her.

Asuka glared at Storm but said nothing. Storm picked up on this and instantly

realized that Asuka seemed to hold some kind of animosity toward her. At first,

she had no idea what it was but she soon figured out that it probably had

something to do with Ranma.

Hm, she must like him and not even realize it, Storm thought. That's rather

interesting, I thought Ranma was her guardian and that was it to their

relationship. Heck, from what I thought, I thought she didn't even like him all

that much and simply tolerated him.

"Y'hungry?" he asked Asuka, "Wanna go get something to eat?"

Storm was surprised to hear that, "To eat? Didn't you just eat?"

He nodded, "Yeah, so?"

Storm was about to ask why he would go out to eat again but decided against

it. Ranma was hard to understand so whatever answer he gave would probably

further confuse her.

"Sure, let's go get some food," Asuka said.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the school behind him, "Well, I'm off to get some

food. Just drop my clothes off in front of the door to my room and I'll get 'em

when we get back. And dontcha go stealing my underwear, I counted 'em so there

better be two when I get back,"

"What?" Storm was shocked, "W-why would I possibly d-do that?"

"I dunno," Ranma narrowed his eyes, "Women are perverted. They steal underwear

and stuff. Take Asuka here for instance,"

"I do not!" Asuka shouted, "I was looking for the nanban mirror!"

"Whatever," Ranma shrugged.

Storm said, "Hey, I just realized something,"

"That if you look up the word 'gullible' in the dictionary, you won't find

it?" Ranma grinned.

"Huh?" Storm asked, "Really?"

"You never stop spewing useless junk, do you?" Asuka seemed annoyed.

Ranma laughed.

Asuka let out an annoyed breath.

Storm said, "I noticed something. You have two pairs of boxers and you've been

here more than two days,"

"So? What does that mean?" he asked.

"That means for more than one day you wear the same...oh gross," Storm said,

disgusted.

Asuka said, "Let's go get some food before talking about this makes me lose

what little remaining appetite I have left,"

Ranma chuckled, "Fine," He then turned toward Storm, "Well, we'll be back

later, Storm,"

"Um, okay,"

"Huh? The word gullible does exist in the dictionary," Storm looked at book,

"Ranma's wrong. I don't get it,"

She scratched her head, wondering what it meant. Was it a joke she didn't

understand?

"What're you doing?" Psylocke asked, entering the library. She spotted her as

she was walking by and was curious about what she was up to.

Storm said, "I'm not too sure. Ranma said that the word 'gullible' doesn't

exist in the dictionary when it does,"

Psylocke laughed aloud.

"What?" Storm asked, feeling like she didn't understand the punch line to some

kind of joke.

"Think," Psylocke tapped her own temple, "It's like 'How do you keep and idiot

in suspense?'...'I'll tell you tomorrow',"

Storm slapped her forehead, "Oh, I'm an idiot. I can't believe Ranma fooled me

so easily,"

"Fooled you how?" Psylocke asked.

"Nevermind," Storm felt embarrassed.

"What, did he say something weird?" Psylocke asked curiously, "He says some

really weird stuff on many occasions, and frankly, I have no idea where some of

the stuff he says comes from,"

"I know," Storm said.

"How'd your date with Ranma go?" Psylocke asked.

"It went fine...wait, how'd you know?" Storm asked.

"He told me," she said, "The two of us went on a date before but was

interrupted when you picked us and Spider-Man up in the Blackbird that day in

New York City. I asked him today about, well, a second date but he declined and

said I had to wait because he was supposed to go out with you,"

Storm said nothing. She couldn't help but feel somewhat flattered.

Rogue entered the library, "Hey guys, whatchy'all up to?"

She had spotted Psylocke and Storm in the library as she was walking by and

was curious.

"Hey, Rogue," Psylocke and Storm said.

Storm suddenly realized what Ranma had mentioned to her in the Laundromat.

"Hey, I'm glad the two of your are here, I have something to tell you," Storm

said.

"What is it?" they turned their attention toward her.

"I have reason to believe Cyclops' might be a panty thief," Storm said.

"What?" the two girls gasped, eyes wide.

"Yeah, Ranma mentioned something about how married men have this weird

perversion of doing that," she said.

"Ranma's pro'bly just pullin' yer leg," Rogue commented, "Ah can not picture

Cyclops doin' somethin' like that. Ranma, yes, but not Cyclops,"

Psylocke said, "Wait, there might be some truth to it. The other day, I

noticed my underwear draw wasn't closed all the way. It looked as if someone had

opened it and closed it but not all the way. And not only that, I noticed that

one of my potted plants seemed to have been slightly shifted on the windowsill,"

Logan had been in her room at the time, during the time when he almost got

caught while Ranma did his best to distract her and ended up asking her out on a

date by accident. It seemed like he hadn't covered his tracks perfectly.

The girls looked at each other.

"You think Cyclops snuck in there?" Storm asked.

"I'm not too sure," Psylocke said.

Rogue headed off toward her room, "Ah'm gonna go see if Ah'm missing any

panties,"

Psylocke went off, "Same here,"

"Guys, don't tell Jean," Storm said, "Ranma said that this is some kind of

phase that Cyclops is going through and we need to catch him and teach him a

lesson to make him stop,"

"Okay,"

new stuff 8/21

Ranma and Cyclops bumped into each other in the hallway.

"Back from dinner with Asuka I see," Cyclops commented.

"Yeah, it was pretty uneventful," Ranma said, "Except for one thing,"

"And what's that?" Cyclops asked.

"This guy and his friends tried to jump me and I beat them all up," Ranma

shrugged, "He said some racial slur toward me earlier and I basically totally

his car. I had been with Storm at the time. Anyway, he found me later on and

wanted to get revenge and tried to jump me with several of his friend. Boy, was

that a mistake on their part,"

Cyclops said, "I figure I'd give you an update on our status. The Avengers

should be here and with a plane for us in about an hour. The other half of the

team has finished their mission is on their way back to the base,"

"Cool," Ranma said.

"Thor, Captain America, and Warbird will come by and drop the plane off,"

Cyclops said, "That way, the could be picked up by their rest of the team as

they head back to base,"

"Sounds like a plan," Ranma smiled, "And then what, we leave straight for

Antarctica?"

Cyclops nodded.

Ranma grinned, "So, you have any idea what Apocalypse is up to? You and Beast

must've been at it the whole time trying to come up with a plausible deduction,

huh?"

Cyclops nodded, "We've got several possibilities, and all of them are rather

worrisome,"

"What are they?" Ranma asked.

"Based on all the parts and components stolen, we think he's creating some

kind of adamantium army of robots," Cyclops said, "Either that or he's armoring

his current army with adamantium. Either way, it's a worrisome problem we will

eventually have to deal with,"

Ranma scratched his head, "How do you know this?"

"Adamantium and Vibranium was stolen from various regions," Cyclops said,

"Heck, even the adamantium from The Vault was stolen. That means Apocalypse has

in his possession the Molecular Rearranger to do so. Considering that one was

stolen from a Canadian base not too long ago, we have good reason to believe

that's the device he used to steal from The Vault,"

"So, fighting an adamantium army, huh?" Ranma asked, scratching his chin, "Is

that gonna be a challenge?"

Cyclops reluctantly nodded, "Very, provided it's properly outfitted.

Apocalypse is the kind to think very far ahead and we can pretty much expect his

army to be very well-outfitted,"

"What problems are there going to be?" Ranma asked.

"Adamantium is basically impervious to anything and everything you throw at

it," Cyclops said, "Energy blasts and such will be deflected right off.

Conventional attacks will have no effect. Physical attacks will have no effect.

The only thing we could possibly do against something like that is to use the

Molecular Rearranger,"

"So, what are you waiting for?" Ranma asked, "Go get your hands on one in

anticipation on what's to come,"

"Captain America and the others are already on it," Cyclops said, "He said

that they are making the necessary calls to have those devices allocated to them

for use. I don't know how long it will take the get through all the red tape and

acquire such a device. All we can do is wait,"

Ranma shrugged, "Seems like that's all we can do for now,"

"The Molecular Rearranger will most likely be our trump card at this rate,"

Cyclops said, "All we can do is wait until Captain America gets his hands on

one,"

Ranma smirked, "Well, since it seems like we'll be waiting, that leaves us

with free time,"

Cyclops nodded, "Yeah, at least an hour or so," He jerked a thumb over his

shoulder, "Say, since there's not much we can do but wait, how about we head

over to the rec-room and play a few games of pool? Logan and Beast are there

right now. We can have ourselves a game, two-on-two,"

Ranma smirked, "Actually, with the free time we have now, now's the best time

for you to find out what kinda panties Storm wears,"

Cyclops' face suddenly became pale.

"What, you think I forgot?" Ranma smirked, "I don't think so. You've still

have to uphold your end of the wager,"

"Look, now's not the time to be doing something like that," Cyclops said,

trying to think on his feet, to come up with some excuse to weasel out of doing

such an insane task.

"Now's not the time, huh?" Ranma smirked, "Of course doing recreation like

playing pool in the rec-room is perfectly all right, huh?"

Cyclops was silent.

"Hey, you were the one that lost the bet," Ranma grinned, "You gave me a

virtually impossible task, expecting me to lose, but I didn't. If I lost, I

would've upheld my end of the wager,"

"Still-" Cyclops said, "Man, I don't understand why you would want to do

something like this. It's so perverted. There's got to be something else,"

Ranma smirked, "Okay, convince Jean, Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm to have an

all-girl orgy where I can tape them doing so and we can call it off,"

"What?" Cyclops was shocked.

"Heh, I'll even join the X-Men if you get that to happen," Ranma snickered.

"That's out of the question!" Cyclops shouted, "T-that's...sick,"

"Dude, you want me to go buy you some tampons or something?" Ranma narrowed

his eyes toward Cyclops, "You've gotta be a girl to think of something like that

as sick,"

Cyclops said, "No! I don't think so!"

"Well, then be a man and uphold your end of the wager," Ranma said, "You lost

the bet so you pay the price. It's really simple,"

"But-" Cyclops said, "It's panties!"

"Dude, it's just finding out what kind Storm wears," Ranma said in annoyance,

"I'm not asking you to steal 'em or anything. If you want to steal 'em and do

whatever you want with 'em, like wear 'em or put them over your head, that's

your prerogative,"

Cyclops was silent.

"Besides, whatcha got to worry about?" Ranma said, "I saw Storm in the library

with Rogue and Psylocke. She's not in her room. I'll help you out and go talk

with her and keep her distracted,"

"Y-you will?" Cyclops asked.

"Sure," Ranma said, "I've helped you this far. I even took a bullet for you

and asked her out on a date so she wouldn't be suspicious when you became a

chicken shit and wanted me to come with you into the locker room,"

"Took a bullet?" Cyclops asked, "How is going out on a date with a beautiful

and wonderful woman like Storm considered 'taking a bullet'?"

"Ooh, what's this, you like her? Beautiful and wonderful, huh?" Ranma smirked.

"She's my friend," Cyclops said in annoyance, "And no, I'm not gonna let you

put words in my mouth,"

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever,"

Cyclops gritted his teeth.

Ranma pointed down the hall, "Well, are you in or not? If you are, I'll go to

the library and distract Storm and the others,"

Cyclops was silent for a long moment before he sighed, "Fine, I'll go. Man,

what'd I get myself into?"

"Heh, a world of shit," Ranma grinned, "You should've given me a REALLY hard

task if you wanted to win that wager,"

"I still don't know how you managed to convince all of them to tell you their

bodyweight and measurements," Cyclops regarded Ranma.

"Like I said, I made a bet with them that I could get them to laugh," Ranma

smirked, "The plan was them for to NOT laugh, but they couldn't help themselves

and lost. I won the bet so they upheld their end of the deal, unlike someone I

know which seems to wanna be a pansy about it. You might know him, his name

rhymes with 'Cyclops',"

"I already agreed to do it," Cyclops muttered, "No need to rub my face in it,"

"I hope you succeed," Ranma smirked, "It'll do my best to distract Storm and

the others,"

"Thanks," Cyclops turned around.

"Oh yeah, one more thing," Ranma said.

"What is it?" Cyclops turned toward him.

Ranma smirked.

"If you get caught, I wasn't involved,"

Ranma entered the library where he spotted Psylocke, Storm, and Rogue talking

to each other as they sat around a table. There was no one else in the library

at the moment so they didn't have to worry about talking too loudly.

Grinning, Ranma snuck up on the girls.

"Boo!" Ranma said as he quickly jumped up in front of the table.

All three girls yelped in surprise.

"Jeez, you surprised us," Psylocke said, her hand on her chest, her heart

beating rapidly.

"Heh, as tough as your girls are, you still act like girls, 'Eeek!'," Ranma

chuckled, trying to act like a girl screaming in fright.

The girls glared at Ranma.

Ranma looked behind himself, wondering what the girls were glaring at. When he

turned back, he said, "What, is there something behind me because I sure don't

see it,"

He walked up and sat down in one of the empty chairs.

Rogue happened to blush slightly and could be seen fidgeting with her gloves,

recalling the scene when she had ran her fingers through Ranma's hair and not

having to worry about accidentally absorbing his powers.

"So, whatcha girls up to?" Ranma asked curiously, "Talking girlie stuff?"

They narrowed their eyes at him.

"Did you download a virus on the library's computer?" Storm asked from out of

the blue.

"Me? W-what makes you think that?" Ranma acted innocent.

Storm seemed skeptic, "I don't know. I wanted to look something up on the

Internet but the computer kept on stalling and then crashing after I turned it

on which leads me to believe it's been infected with a computer virus,"

"Um, I have no idea what you're talking about," Ranma shrugged.

"For some reason, I find that rather hard to believe," Storm stated.

Ranma grinned, "Well, if you prove that it's me that did it, then I'll take

responsibility,"

"How come you're here?" Psylocke asked. She figured he and Asuka would still

be out eating.

"Because I was banned from the War Room and Danger Room," Ranma said, "I

figure since I can't go there, I'll chill here,"

"There are no porno magazines here in the library," Psylocke stated, "This is

a library and not a book store,"

"Wow, aren't you funny?" Ranma said with an exaggerated laugh, "Damn, I better

write that joke down so I don't forget it later on,"

"Hmph," Psylocke said to Ranma in annoyance.

"Hey, Psylocke, did you know Ranma was able to tell that you were once blind?"

Storm said, figuring that would be a good subject to talk about.

"Really? You mean from when I lost my sight fighting Slaymaster?" Psylocke

asked Storm.

Storm nodded.

"How'd you know that? I never told you that," Psylocke said to Ranma.

Ranma shrugged, "I mentioned it Storm about things I've noticed about the

group based on some things I've noticed,"

He glanced toward the clock and noted what time it was. He might as well

indulge in conversation for a few minutes.

"You seemed to appreciate sight and take in scenery more than the others so

it's natural to assume you were blind for an extended period of time before you

got your eyesight back," Ranma stated.

"No way, really?" Psylocke said in surprise, "I take in scenery more than

others? I figure I act no differently now than before the incident that lost me

my sight,"

"You barely do," Ranma said, "You just happen to spend just slightly more time

than others taking in scenery. I doubt anyone but I would notice something like

that,"

"How did you figure something like that out?" she asked, genuinely interested.

Ranma pointed toward one eye, "I got stabbed through my eye by a spear-like

weapon. I lost my sight through one eye and it basically destroy my sense of

depth for a while. When I got my sight back, boy, did it make me realize how

much I took sight for granted,"

"How did you cope with it?" Psylocke asked, feeling like she had some kind of

connection to him.

"I trained in sensing my surroundings better," Ranma leaned back in his chair,

"Now, I don't even need to see to know what's around me since I can sense it.

However, I hafta be actively doing so to sense my surroundings. I haven't done

so in a while so I might be rusty, but it's just like riding a bike and will

come back to me in no time,"

Psylocke asked, "Can you show me? Train me, I mean,"

Ranma shrugged, "I guess. It could come in handy actually. That way, people

can't sneak up on you, like the way I did with this group,"

Storm said, "I have no idea how you managed to sneak up on us. I can sense the

disturbance in the air and tell where someone is..."

Ranma laughed, "Reading the air currents, huh? Pretty useful for detecting

people that don't know how to get around it. Too bad that stuff's child play for

someone like me. I can sneak up on God if I wanted to,"

"Are you always this modest?" Psylocke smirked, someone amused.

"What've y'noticed 'bout Storm?" Rogue asked curiously.

"Oh, I noticed she was claustrophobic because of where she tends to stand in

relation to everyone else," Ranma said, "She tends to stand out the outer edges

of a group. Heck, look at where she sits. She sits in the chair closest to the

door, which subconsciously indicates something,"

"Wow, that's amazing," Rogue said, "Um, what 'bout me? What can y'figure out

about me?"

Ranma smirked. After a moment, he decided to say nothing teasing. Rogue had

just set herself up for some hilarity on his part but it seemed to easy to take

advantage of such a situation. There was no challenge.

"You used to be left-handed," Ranma said.

"I-I was?" Rogue looked down at her hands, "But I use my right,"

"It's probably your powers then," Ranma said, "From what I see, you used to be

left-handed and are now right-handed. You probably absorbed someone's psyche who

was right-handed and became so because of that,"

"H-how the heck do you know something like that?" Rogue asked, wondering if

that was true. She honest to goodness couldn't tell if she had been left-handed.

Ranma held his hand out toward Rogue, "Gimme your left hand,"

"But-" she said.

"You can't absorb my powers, remember?" Ranma said, "Your mutant powers have

no effect on me,"

Rogue blushed. She was definitely aware of that. She looked at her hand and

then at Ranma's. After a good minutes, she extended her left hand for Ranma to

take.

Ranma proceeded to remove the glove. When he did so, Rogue instinctively tried

to pull her hand away but Ranma held tightly.

"Relax," Ranma said.

Ranma took the glove off to reveal the Rogue's left hand. She had small hands

and very delicate looking fingers.

"Wow, you've got very delicate looking hands," Ranma looked at her hands, "I

guess that's because you're always wearing gloves so your hands don't get

calluses,"

Rogue didn't hear the comment, transfixed at seeing her hands touching

Ranma's. She was feeling Ranma's hand again and the sensation was very enticing.

She couldn't help but feel a bit jealous at Psylocke and Storm. It was very

obvious they took human touch for granted.

"Wow, her powers have no effect on you," Psylocke commented.

Ranma pointed toward her middle finger where there was a small callus by the

knuckle, "Here's a small callus that developed on her finger from when she holds

onto a pen or pencil. It's healing which indicated this used to be her writing

hand, meaning she used to be left-handed,"

"There's no way you can tell from something like that," Storm was extremely

skeptic.

"Yeah, there is," Ranma said, "You don't develop such a callus unless you

write with that hand for most of your life. The way it's healed indicated she

stopped using her left-hand for writing a while ago. Therefore, she used to be

left-handed but is now right-handed,"

"T-that's incredible," Rogue said, flushed from the sensation of touch and

surprise, "How could you notice something like that, that I used to write with

my left hand?"

Ranma smiled, "I noticed your hand during the time you were, well, feeling me

up,"

"F-feeling Ranma up?" Psylocke and Storm turned toward Rogue.

"Ah was only runnin' m'fingers through his hair," Rogue said loudly.

Ranma laughed aloud. He glanced toward the clock and noticed what time it was.

Cyclops was probably inside Storm's bedroom right now sneaking around looking

for her panty drawer.

"Hey, Storm, I just remembered something," Ranma smirked, "I saw Cyclops

wandering around in the hallway today. I think he's up to no good,"

"H-he is?" Storm's eyes widened, "Y-you don't think he would..."

Ranma shrugged, "Who knows? I recommend you check for yourself. Of course, if

you catch him, don't tell him I told you,"

Storm headed for the door, "Thanks for the heads up, Ranma. I'll see you

around later,"

Psylocke got up out of her seat, "I'll come along. We all need to confront him

and teach him a lesson, that we don't condone such actions,"

"S-Storm told you, huh?" Ranma asked.

Psylocke nodded, "She told both Rogue and I,"

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever. I don't care,"

Psylocke headed for the door.

"Ah'm comin' along too," Rogue headed for the door.

"Wait!" Ranma tried to say.

Rogue had been completely unaware that she had been still holding onto Ranma's

hand. Even thought he had let go of Rogue's hand, she didn't of Ranma's hand,

too caught up in enjoying human touch without the risk of absorbing Ranma's

powers.

Ranma ended up crashing against the edge of the table where he flipped over

it, slamming into a couple of chairs where he fell to the ground and ended up

getting dragged the distance between the table and the door. He ended up

crashing into side of the door face first, halting Rogue's egress.

"What the?" Rogue turned around, wondering what stopped her.

She found herself looking down at Ranma as he lay on the ground right by her

feet.

"What're y'doing down there?" Rogue asked curious.

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand, his other hand still

held fast in Rogue's grip.

"Um, you can let go of my hand now,"

Ranma had a big grin on his face as he snuck through the hallways. He knew

Cyclops was in trouble and wanted to see the embarrassed look on his face.

However, he didn't want Cyclops to see him out. He didn't want Cyclops to think

he had anything to do with his getting caught.

"What are you doing?" Asuka asked him, approaching him from behind. She was

getting a bit impatient and had grown tired of reading and wanted to do

something else. She was hoping Ranma would take her to the amusement park or

something.

"Cyclops is gonna get killed," Ranma chuckled, peeking around a corner.

"W-what?" Asuka said.

"It's nothing to worry about," Ranma said, "And keep your voice down,"

"What are you talking about? What's going to happen to Cyclops?" Asuka asked,

concerned.

Ranma said, "I made it so that Storm would discover Cyclops in her room and

think he was trying to steal her panties. It's gonna lead to a huge

misunderstanding where Cyclops would be forever branded a pervert,"

"W-why'd you go and do that?" Asuka asked, "And how did you go about and do

that?"

"Heh, Nabiki, eat your heart out, you're not the only one that can manipulate

people," Ranma chuckled.

"Who's this Nabiki person? Is she pretty? How do you know her?" Asuka asked

in quick succession.

Ranma looked at Asuka, "Asuka, you need to take some kinda anti-jealousy

pills. Jeez. Nabiki's Akane's sister from when she was alive. She used to get me

into situations much like the one I got Cyclops in. No need to get all upset,"

Asuka flushed with embarrassment.

"Why'd you go and do something like this?" Asuka asked, "I don't understand,"

"I did it because I can," Ranma chuckled, "Since when did I need a reason to

do what I do?"

"I guess you have a point," Asuka said, knowing it was useless to really

pursue the issue at hand.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I'm doing this to draw some of the heat

off of me," Ranma chuckled, "The girls are always angry at me so I figure it's

good to have someone else for them to be angry at,"

"But you never cared who's angry at you," Asuka commented.

"I don't really care," Ranma said, "But it doesn't mean I want them to be

angry at me. I'd rather them not be angry at me than angry. That's all,"

"But you're doing this at the expense of bodily harm to Cyclops," Asuka

stated, "Don't you feel bad doing something like that to him,"

Ranma started laughing, "Not in the least bit,"

"How'd all this come about?" Asuka asked, "Why would Cyclops sneak into

Storm's room in the first place?"

"Cyclops lost a bet so I told him to sneak into Storm's room and try and

discover what kinda panties she wears," Ranma chuckled, "I'm curious because of

that article I read the other day about people with certain personalities

sporting certain kinds of panties. I wanted to see how correct that article is,"

"Y-you pervert!" Asuka was disgusted.

"I've already found out all of 'em," Ranma shrugged, "The article's actually

very accurate and probably hit the personalities spot-on,"

"Really?" she was curious.

Ranma grinned, "For instance, a person with your personality would tend to

sport sky-blue cotton panties. Let's see if I'm right,"

Asuka blushed a deep shade of red when Ranma tried to flip up her skirt to see

what kind of panties she wore.

"Ranma!" she said, kicking at him to get him away from her.

"All right, I'll stop, I was just teasing you, sheesh," Ranma said, stopping

what he was doing.

Ranma sneaked down the hallway, Asuka following him.

"Why're y'following me?" Ranma asked her, "You're gonna get me caught,"

"Good," Asuka smirked, "What you're doing is wrong,"

"You don't even know what I did," Ranma said in annoyance.

"Well, whatever it is, based on your record, I can easily assume it's

something bad," Asuka stated.

"Boy, you're nagging an extra amount today, huh?" Ranma asked, "Are you

venting out all that nagging that queued up from when you didn't nag me the past

couple of days?"

"Hmph!" she muttered.

"Look, it's just harmless fun," Ranma said, "Cyclops lost a bet so I told him

to find out what kinda panties Storm wears, because I'm curious as to how

accurate the magazine article is. However, it just so happens I found out on my

own without Cyclops,"

"You did?" Asuka narrowed her eyes at him, "When? How?"

"We were at the Laundromat," Ranma said, "I took a glimpse. Quit getting so

angry. It's not like I stole 'em or something, jeez,"

"So why is Cyclops still going about trying to find out something you already

know?" Asuka asked.

Ranma grinned, "Because I want him to get caught,"

"That's so mean," Asuka stated.

"Yes it is," Ranma chuckled, "But don't worry, I have a funny feeling I'll be

able to sleep at night even if I do know what I did,"

"How'd you get this to happen?" Asuka asked, "What bet did he lose that makes

him hafta go through with this?"

Ranma smirked, "Man, you ask a lotta questions, huh?"

"Well, I'm curious," she retorted, "Tell me,"

"Remember when we were having that barbeque that night?" Ranma asked, "Where

all you girls were sitting by the table while the guys were hanging around the

barbeque?"

Asuka nodded, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Cyclops made a bet that I couldn't get all you girls to tell me your

bodyweight and measurements," Ranma said.

Asuka's eyes widened, "What? W-what kind of insane bet is that? Do guys have

ridiculous bets like that?"

Ranma grinned.

Asuka scratched her head, "Wait, how'd you win that bet then? We never told

you anything like that,"

Ranma said, "That's because I never tried. I knew I wasn't gonna get you girls

to tell me your bodyweight and measurements so I cheated,"

"How?" she scratched her head.

Ranma grinned, "Guess,"

"Y-you read our minds?" Asuka's eyes widened, "T-that's why you were looking

into our eyes like that!"

Ranma laughed, "Yep,"

"I-I can't believe you did that!" Asuka felt violated, "That's an invasion of

privacy,"

"Hey, I didn't wanna lose the bet," Ranma shrugged, "I wasn't supposed to do

that but, fuck it, I did it anyway. What's funny is that Cyclops doesn't know I

did that,"

"H-he doesn't?" Asuka asked.

"He thinks I made a bet with you girls that if I could make you girls laugh

three times, you would have to tell me your bodyweight and measurements," Ranma

smiled, "He doesn't know the 'bet' I told him I made with you girls was

completely made up,"

"I can't believe it," Asuka said, "You cheated on a bet with Cyclops! And now

Cyclops is gonna get in deep trouble with Storm because he thinks he lost that

bet!"

Ranma chuckled, "Yeah. I'm pretty evil, ain't I?"

"Why would you do this? That's so mean!" Asuka was appalled.

"Because I already found out what kinda panties Storm wears so I don't need

Cyclops' help in finding out anymore," Ranma answered truthfully, "Because of

that, I figured it's good to have him help get some heat off my back by taking

some heat himself,"

"That's just wrong!" Asuka said, "T-that's just so wrong!"

Ranma grinned.

"Yes it is,"

Ranma, Asuka at his side, approached Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke as they were

standing in front of door that lead to Storm's room.

"Hey, what's up?" Ranma asked curiously.

"It seems like your belief that Cyclops would do something like steal my

underwear is unfounded," Storm said, "There's no indication that he did such a

thing,"

Asuka kept silent. She had agreed not to spoil Ranma's fun and rat on him. She

didn't even know why she was doing him the favor of keeping silent but she found

herself unable to say no to any of his requests. She believed she was so

pathetic.

"Oh?" Ranma asked.

"He didn't sneak into my room or steal anything," Storm said, "Everything in

my room is as it was before,"

"Oh, okay," Ranma said, a bit disappointed.

He scratched his head. He was so sure Cyclops would not have enough time to

escaped getting caught by Storm while he was in her room. He walked up to the

door and peered in, wondering how he could have made his escape so quickly.

"I really don't think Cyclops is the kind of person to do something like

that," Psylocke commented, "It's so unlike him it's not even funny,"

"Ah agree," Rogue stated.

Looking down at the bed, Ranma caught sight of Storm's clothes neatly laid out

on the bed. Everything was in a nice neat pile, even her panties. It made Ranma

realize that Cyclops had ready access to finding out what kind of panties the

moment he entered the bedroom and was long gone before Storm and the others

showed up.

"Damn," he said. He hadn't anticipated that Storm would leave her panties out

on her bed for Cyclops to quickly see and be on his way. He figured Cyclops

would need to spend at least a minute looking around for Storms' panty drawer.

"Something the matter?" Asuka smirked, secretly glad that Ranma's plan seemed

to have fallen apart.

"Nothing," Ranma said.

He smirked. He had to give Cyclops credit. Perhaps it wasn't his time to die.

Perhaps him escaping this situation unharmed was meant to be. It seemed like

Cyclops was born under a lucky star.

"Hm, if I think about it, perhaps you have nothing to worry about," Ranma

said, "Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure Cyclops wouldn't do something

like that anyway,"

Asuka regarded Ranma. She understood exactly what Ranma was doing. Since

Cyclops seemed to have escaped his fate, Ranma was man enough to cover Cyclops'

butt since it seemed like him getting caught was never meant to be.

"I'm pretty sure of it myself," Storm said, "Cyclops isn't that kind of

person,"

Asuka smirked, "Ranma's the kind of person that would do that,"

"That we agree on," Psylocke said, "Of all people that would do something like

that, we believe it's you,"

"What you think of me is your prerogative," Ranma seemed unbothered.

"We've been worrying about nothing," Storm said, closing her room door behind

her, "Cyclops's not that kind of guy,"

Together, the girls headed down the hallway, disappearing around a corner.

When they were gone, Asuka turned toward Ranma and stuck her tongue at him,

"Ha ha, your planned failed,"

"Gee, aren't we a bit childish?" Ranma smirked.

"Not as childish as the stunt you tried to pull to get Cyclops caught," Asuka

retorted.

Ranma shrugged.

"I guess my plan fell through. Oh well, I guess it was meant to be. Cyclops is

lucky. No harm done,"

"Ranma, you've got to help me," Cyclops approached him.

Ranma had been waiting outside by the front of the school. That was the

meeting place they had decided on. Asuka wasn't with him, having went to the

library as well with Psylocke, Storm, and Rogue.

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked, a bit surprised. He figured Cyclops wasn't the

type of person to ask someone for help.

Cyclops reached into his pocket and pulled out something. Ranma instantly

recognized it as a pair of Storm's panties.

"Whoa," Ranma said, "You stole her underwear,"

"I didn't mean it," Cyclops said, a concerned look on his face, "I had it in

my hand when I heard Storm and someone coming down the hall and I quickly jumped

out of the window,"

Ranma said, "Why'd you take it? All you needed to do was just find out what it

was,"

"Well, it was a REALLY scary situation and I panicked," Cyclops said.

Ranma laughed, "Yeah, I know whatcha mean,"

"What should I do?" Cyclops asked in a worried voice.

"What do you think, you return it," Ranma answered, "You stole it, you return

it,"

Cyclops shook his head, "I'm not going to return it. I'm not going through

that again. I'll just throw it away. That way, Storm might think she

accidentally lost one in the wash when she did the laundry today,"

"What, you can't do that," Ranma said, "That's not right,"

"Well, I'm not going to return it," Cyclops said, "I refuse,"

Ranma scratched his head. What were they going to do?

"Where were you?" Cyclops asked, "I thought you said you were going to try and

keep Storm distracted,"

"Hey, I couldn't keep 'em distracted the whole time," Ranma said, "I told you

I would try and keep her distracted as long as possible, but that doesn't mean I

can keep her distracted indefinitely,"

Cyclops extended the panties out to Ranma, "Here,"

"Why're you giving it to me?" Ranma asked, holding his hands up defensively.

"I'm not returning it," Cyclops said, "You return it. This would never've

happened if you've kept Storm distracted longer,"

Ranma was silent for a moment. Should he accept responsibilities and return

it? Now that he thought about it, Cyclops could have been an innocent victim. He

happened to have been lucky to have escaped getting caught.

Ranma had tried doing something really bad to Cyclops and Cyclops was

completely unaware of this. Hadn't Ranma already tried to do something bad

enough to someone completely unaware of his plans?

"Fine, I'll return it," Ranma said. It was the least he could do. Cyclops

actually managed to follow through on his end of the wager so he had to give

Cyclops credit for that.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it," Cyclops said gratefully.

"I saw the girls returning to the library," Ranma stated, "Just go there and

keep 'em distracted for a minute or two, okay?"

Cyclops nodded, "Okay, will do,"

Sighing, Ranma pocketed the pair of panties and headed into the school,

heading for Storm's room to return the panties for Cyclops.

"That's strange, Storm said she didn't notice anything missing," Ranma asked

himself, "If that's the case, wouldn't she have noticed Cyclops had swiped one

of her underwear?"

After Ranma disappeared into the school, Cyclops headed in as well, heading

for the library.

Inside the library, Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke were scratching their heads at

the looked at the computer.

"I swear, Ranma must have done something to this computer," Psylocke

commented, "It's got to be some kind of computer virus he downloaded. The

keyboard and mouse don't work. How does one get rid of such a virus without

being able to use the keyboard or mouse to go about getting rid of it,"

"We need t'ask Beast," Rogue mentioned, "He'll know what t'do,"

"I'm pretty sure this is Ranma's doing," Asuka commented, "You have no idea

how many computers he's infected back home,"

Cyclops entered the library, "Hey, ladies,"

They all looked up from the screen and saw Cyclops standing on the door. An

immediate image of Cyclops sneaking around stealing panties popped into their

heads but they banished it. Cyclops was not that kind of person. Ranma was

probably trying to plant seeds of doubt as to Cyclops' character since the two

of them seemed to constantly be at odds with each other.

Asuka smiled at Cyclops, glad that he hadn't gotten caught and that Ranma's

plans had fallen apart. She thought Cyclops was a pretty cool guy, albeit a bit

uptight, and that he didn't deserve what Ranma had planned for him.

Cyclops jerked a thumb toward he door behind him, "Is there something wrong

with Ranma?"

"What do you mean?" Storm asked first.

"I don't think he noticed me, but he was sneaking around in the hallways by

your room," Cyclops said.

"Really?" Storm asked.

"I don't know what he was doing, but it looked very suspicious," Cyclops

smirked.

"I knew it!" Psylocke commented, "Ranma was using Cyclops as a cover-up,"

"I think you're right!" Storm said, quickly heading for the door out of the

library.

"Don't bother asking about what we're talking about. It's a long story,"

Psylocke told him as she rushed past him and out the library.

Rogue said nothing as she quickly followed suit, leaving behind only Cyclops

and Asuka.

Cyclops smirked at Asuka, "Your friend, Ranma. He's quite a character, trying

to get me in trouble like that. Let's see him get a taste of his own medicine,"

"Y-you know?" she asked.

"I was hiding in a nearby room where you and Ranma were talking so I heard

everything," Cyclops said, "Ranma wanted me to get caught,"

"I tried to stop it," Asuka said.

Cyclops smirked, "I know, thanks. Man, Ranma's sneaky, really sneaky. I can't

believe he cheated on that bet,"

Asuka gave a shy smile, "Um, that's Ranma for you. He does sneaky stuff when

it's convenient for him. In his defense, I think he did that all in good fun,"

"How is that in good fun?" Cyclops asked, "I don't think I'd find it funny if

I got caught,"

Asuka asked, "I'm glad you didn't get caught. How'd you do it?"

Cyclops found no reason not to tell her, "I never made it into her room and

hid in a room as the girls went by. I happened to have overheard the two of

you's conversation while in there and found out about Ranma's rather insidious

plan,"

Asuka gave a shy smile.

"After everyone left, I snuck into the room and stole something of Storm's and

went to meet up with Ranma outside where we were expected to meet," Cyclops

smirked, "I made him think that I panicked and took it with me. I managed to

convince him to return them back. He's trying to return it now. That's where

Storm and the others come in. They'll catch him and think he was trying to steal

Storm's underwear,"

"Good, it serves him right," she headed for the door, "I wanna be there when

they catch him and see what he does,"

"Same here," Cyclops followed after her.

"You were trying steal Storm's panties," Psylocke shouted toward Ranma.

Ranma was standing outside Storm's room, his back toward her door, Storm,

Psylocke, and Rogue surrounding him. Cyclops and Asuka had a big smile on their

faces when they saw this. Ranma had been caught red-handed and was going to be

killed.

"I dunno whatcha talkin' about," Ranma said innocently.

"Admit it, you were trying to make us think it was Cyclops that would do

something like that so blame would be thrown on him after you carry out your

perverted mission," Psylocke said coldly.

Ranma chuckled, "Right, what makes you think that?"

"Maybe you should check his pocket, to see if he stole anything," Cyclops

smirked.

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Cyclops.

Storm pointed toward Ranma's pockets, "Rouge, Psylocke, check his pockets,"

Rogue and Psylocke didn't care to be told what to do but let it slide. They

bent down and stuck their hands in Ranma's pockets, feeling around for

something, anything.

"What's this?" Rogue feeling around.

"What do you think?" Ranma asked, "It rhymes with 'my dick',"

Rogue quickly pulled her hand out of his pockets, a hug blush on her face.

Psylocke pulled her hand out as well, scared that she might accidentally grab

something she wasn't supposed to grab.

Ranma reached into his pockets and pulled them inside out.

"I don't have anything in my pockets. See?" Ranma said, gesturing.

Cyclops was confused. Did Ranma move that fast that he was able to lockpick

Storm's door and return the article of clothing in its rightful place and be out

of the room and closing the door behind him in that short span of time?

Ranma smirked, "I suggest you check Cyclops' pocket,"

"W-what?" Cyclops asked.

"I'm innocent here," Ranma said, "For all we know, my claim about Cyclops is

correct and he's using me as a scapegoat,"

Cyclops reached into his pockets and pulled something out. He looked at it and

suddenly realized it was a pair of Storm's panties.

"What the?" Cyclops was shocked, "H-how'd t-that get in there?"

He was absolutely positive Ranma took it. When the heck did Ranma put those

back in Cyclops' pocket without him realizing it?

"Oh my God, you're a panty thief like Ranma had mentioned," Psylocke was

shocked.

"Wait, hold up!" Cyclops held his hands up defensively. Doing so made things

seems worse because the panties were still in one of his hands.

"Care to explain yourself?" Storm narrowed her eyes toward Cyclops. Friend or

not, what Cyclops did was not something she would let slide.

"Um, er," Cyclops found himself at a loss of words.

"Let's hurt 'im," Rogue said to Psylocke and Storm, "W'can't let somethin'

like this slide, even if it was Cyclops that did it,"

"I agree," Psylocke said coldly.

"Same here," Storm said.

Cyclops had this scared look on his face as he realized he was going to be

killed or brought close to it. He didn't know what was going to happen to him,

but he was in deep deep trouble.

At that point in time, he inwardly swore that he would have his revenge on

Ranma, provided he lived through this.

"Ha, I do this stuff all the time! You think I'd get caught that easily? I

know how to cover my tracks!" Ranma laughed at Cyclops, eager to see the man

get really hurt.

All the girls turned their attention toward Ranma.

"Hm, I wasn't supposed to say that out loud, was I?" Ranma noticed the angered

look on the girls' faces.

"No, you shouldn'tve," Asuka smirked. The foot-in-mouth syndrome Ranma

suffered was definitely his downfall.

"I'm dead, ain't I?" Ranma asked the girls.

"Now you are, yes," they all said.

Ranma shrugged, "Oh well, I might as well go down in blazing glory then,"

He reached out and grabbed Storm's breasts and gave it a quick squeeze before

moving on to doing the same with Rogue and then Psylocke.

When the girls suddenly realized what Ranma had done, their fury grew to

astronomical proportions.

"You pervert!"

new stuff 8/22

Ranma, looking like a walking dead, and Asuka walked down the hallway

together. Oddly enough, aside from the tattered clothes and the messed up hair,

he seemed perfectly fine.

"Serves you right for trying to pull a stunt like that," Asuka giggled.

"Yeah yeah," Ranma shrugged. Oddly enough, even though he looked like he had

been on the receiving end of a very bad beat-down, he seemed perfectly fine. He

didn't even walk with a limp or such.

He chuckled, "What's funny is that these clothes that were messed up were

Cyclops',"

"Oh, it seems like you're having the last laugh then, huh?" Asuka smirked.

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Asuka.

Together, they went to their room.

Once inside, Ranma proceeded to strip.

"Ranma, w-what are you doing?" she blushed a deep shade of red when she saw

him topless. His muscular physique glistened against the little remaining

sunlight that shone in through the window.

"I'm getting changed," Ranma said, picking up a pair of clothes, "For me to

change into some wearable clothes, I need to change out of my ripped ones,"

Asuka turned her back toward Ranma. It wasn't because she wanted to give Ranma

privacy but because she didn't want to see him naked. She knew if she saw him

naked, she would not be able to sleep well for weeks. She already had enough

trouble sleeping because she had seen him naked before, during the incident when

he accidentally went into the women's locker room because he couldn't read the

sign on the door correctly.

"Suckerfish!" Ranma chuckled, lifting the back of Asuka's shirt and pressing

himself against her. 'Suckerfish' was a term that referred to when a girl

presses her bare breasts against a guy's bare back, doing so in good harmless

fun simply to startle the guy.

Ranma did his own male version of the suckerfish.

Asuka shrieked as she felt Ranma's manhood press against the small of her

back. Instinctively, she turned around to face him and take several steps away

from him.

Ranma had a smile on his face. He was fully dressed in his own red-

shirt/black-pants outfit. He had his forearm up by his face.

"I pressed my forearm against your back to make you think it was my, well,

y'know," Ranma grinned.

"That's...that's so childish!" Asuka shouted at him, "Why don't you act your

age for a change?"

"If I acted my age, I'd be dead," Ranma answered, "I'm over a hundred years

old, afterall,"

"Well, why dontcha act the age that you look?" Asuka said.

"And what age is that?" Ranma smirked, "I look neither young nor old. If you

can guess what age I look, I'd like to know because I sure as hell don't know,"

"Well, you look around, I dunno, late twenties," Asuka said, "Or perhaps early

thirties,"

Ranma headed for the door, "C'mon, let's go wait outside,"

"For what?" she asked.

"For the plane to arrive," he said, "It should be showing up really soon,"

Beast watched the television screen as he and Logan went about playing pool in

the rec-room.

"Your turn," Logan said, gesturing toward the pool table.

Beast went about taking his shot, "I wonder what that loud noise was before.

It sounded like Storm shooting lightning bolts at something,"

"Or someone," Logan smirked, "Most likely Ranma,"

"Maybe we should go check," Beast said.

"After the game," Logan said, "If it was Storm and it was her trying to attack

Ranma for whatever reasons it might be, it's none of our business anyway,"

"I guess you have a point," Beast said. He took his shot and sunk one of the

billiard balls. He walked around the pool table to take his next shot, "I hope

no more attacks on government compounds occur while we're ground for the time

being,"

"Hey, y'might wanna check the television out," Logan gestured, "Seems like

y'spoke too spoke,"

Beast looked at the television screen. It displayed and image of a female

reporter standing in front of a large building as it smoldered in the

background. Firefighters could be seen trying to control the building currently

up in flames.

"I recognize that building," Beast said, "That's the Lockheed Martin facility

located up in Owego in upstate New York,"

"What about it?" Logan asked, "Does this have anything to do with the recent

thefts of adamantium and things related to it?"

Beast scratched his head, "I'm not too sure. Lockheed Martin works in

conjunction with the military in developing new military equipment. For

instance, they designed and created the stealth bomber. They also designed

numerous unmanned ground vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles for military use.

I don't know what the connection would be to the adamantium thefts though,"

"Well, we should bring this up with everyone," Logan said.

"I agree,"

Ranma and Asuka sat on the steps in front of the school.

"You definitely got on Storm's and Rogue's and Psylocke's bad side," Asuka

said, wanting to make conversation.

"That don't bother me none," Ranma shrugged, "It's probably better that way

anyway. If they hate me, then they won't like me,"

"What are you getting at?" Asuka asked, "You're not making any sense,"

"I don't want 'em falling for me or nothing," Ranma stated, "I've got enough

women after me in my life,"

Asuka said wryly, "Well, it seems like your sense of modesty came out of that

beat-down intact,"

Ranma smirked, "Like you have any complaints. I'm sure deep down inside you

like the fact that they are pissed at me because you're thinking the same thing

as myself,"

"I-I am not!" Asuka blushed a deep shade of red.

"If you say so," Ranma laid back against the steps, looking up at the sky.

As he looked up, he spotted a plane hovering high in the sky slowly descending

in a vertical fashion.

"Hey, look, the plane's here," Ranma pointed.

Asuka looked up and saw the plane, "Ah, it's here. I better go tell the

others,"

She got up to her feet and headed into the school. Ranma remained where he

was, shielding his eyes from the dust as the plane hovered down and landed in

the open grassy field in front of the school.

Ranma didn't want to get up, having just sat down a second ago, so he decided

to stay where he was.

"Hey," Ranma waved toward Captain America and Thor and Warbird as they emerged

from the back of the plane and crossed the field.

"Greetings," Thor said, "We're back and with a plane you and the X-Men are in

much need of,"

Ranma scratched his head, "If you're leavin' a plane here, how the heck

y'gonna get back home? Oh, wait, you other teammates will be picking you up,

right?"

Captain America nodded, "Yes. They are on their way and will be pick us up

from this location,"

"Cool," Ranma said.

The entire X-Men team and Asuka emerged from the school to greet the three

newcomers. Storm and Psylocke and Rogue glared at Ranma as they walked past him

but Ranma seemed oblivious of those glares which seemed to make them even more

angry at him.

Ranma remained where he was, continuing to sit on the stairs as the group

approached Thor, Captain America, and Warbird. Asuka, not really knowing what to

do, decided to stick by Ranma's side and sat down next to him.

"What happened?" Jean asked Ranma, "It seems like Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke

are angry at you. What did you do?"

She was unaware of what had happened earlier. Everyone that wasn't there at

the time wasn't aware of what had happened and what Ranma had done that got the

three girls so angry at him.

"Why do people automatically assume it was something I did?" Ranma asked.

Jean was buying none of it. She contemplating using telepathy to find out why

Storm and the other two were angry at Ranma but decided against it. Perhaps she

didn't want to know. It was probably something really stupid that Ranma had

done.

"I'm gonna take a nap," Ranma closed his eyes, his hands behind his head,

"Just wake me up when you guys think up a plan on what to do from here,"

"He seems rather care-free it seems," Captain America commented, jerking a

thumb toward Ranma's sleeping form.

"Just leave him alone," Storm commented, "I think he's better off that way,"

Captain America smirked, wondering what Ranma must have done to make Storm

obviously angry at him. He didn't know who Ranma was but knew he had the kind of

personality that probably rubbed people the wrong way more often than not.

"Thanks for letting us borrow a plane," Cyclops said, becoming serious. He

knew that he had a lot of explaining to do with the group about what had

occurred and how he got caught up in everything but he didn't have time to do so

at the moment. There were more pressing matters.

"Have you been watching the news?" Captain America asked.

"Why, what happened?" Cyclops asked, "You mean Lockheed Martin having been

attacked?"

Captain America nodded, "Yes,"

"Does it have any connection with the adamantium thefts?" Beast asked, "I

didn't find out what was stolen or destroyed or such yet and need time to find

out,"

"An EMP generator," Captain America said, "It's a prototype device that

Lockheed Martin had been developing secretly for around a year,"

Unlike the X-Men where they needed to hack into government computers and snoop

around and figuring what was happening, the Avengers had access to highly

classified government information.

"EMP? As in Electro-Magnetic pulse?" Storm asked.

"I've heard about it," Beast said, "I remembering following Lockheed's early

development of such a device. I didn't think it was so far along that a

prototype has already been developed,"

"Well, it has," Captain America, "And it was stolen,"

"What's its area of effect?" Beast asked.

"It was tested in Nevada not too long ago," Captain America answered, "It's

got a fifteen mile range with a spread of ninety degrees,"

"Oh my god, I can't believe something like that's been already created!" Beast

was shocked.

"What's going on?" Psylocke asked, not liking the worried face Beast was

displaying.

"EMP stands for Electro-Magnetic Pulse and is harmless to living things but

wrecks havoc to electronic components," Beast said, figuring he should give

everyone a quick lesson in case they weren't aware of what it was, "An EMP

generator is basically a weapon that shoots out EMP like that of a gun,

destroying any form of electronics in the pulse's path. At a range of fifteen

miles with a spread of ninety degrees, that's a massive area of effect,"

"That's really bad," Psylocke commented, "So does that mean anything in its

area of effect will be basically sent back into the Stone Age?"

"Yes," Beast became pacing around, "This is getting to be a really dire

situation. Don't you guys understand what that could mean? If this is

Apocalypse's doing, which is most likely, then he just got his hands on the one

weapon that can neutralize the use of the Molecular Rearranger,"

"Wait, if he creates an adamantium army of robots, then that means..." Cyclops

said.

"That the one thing that can stop it, the Molecular Rearranger, will be

rendered useless long before it could be brought in close enough to be used,"

Beast finished for him.

Captain America said, "That's the conclusion we've come to. Even though that

may seem to be the case, we're still trying to get our hands on several

Molecular Rearrangers,"

"Wait, the EMP weapon's got a spread of ninety degrees," Cyclops stated, "That

means all we need to get the weapon in close enough from a different direction

where the weapon isn't pointed in,"

Captain America said, "We've already tried to think of a plan. The generator's

recharge rate is exceptional. It can fire a second burst of EMP within one

second after shooting its first,"

"If that's the case, it means we have a four second window to get the

Molecular Rearranger in place to be used," Beast said, "That's not possible.

There's no way we can physically move the device a span of fifteen miles in

under four seconds without it breaking. The amount of force that will be exerted

on the device to move it that far a distance in such a short time will be

tremendous. The Molecular Rearranger has lots of delicate components that will

fall apart under such strain. Heck, the Molecular Rearranger is meant to be a

stationary device,"

"There is one way," Thor said, "I can use my Hammer to teleport it from

outside the weapon's effective range to within an effective range for the

Molecular Rearranger to be used. That way, there would be no need to move the

device over such distances nor the worry of it being damaged during transport,"

"That sounds possible, but how are we going to be able to coordinate such an

attack?" Cyclops asked, "That means someone will have to be within range to use

the device when it is teleported to them, but how will they be able to

communicate with Thor to transport it at the right time? So that he doesn't

teleport it right in front of the EMP burst as its going off?"

"I can use my telepathy," Jean said.

"Wouldn't the use of an EMP weapon be a double edges sword?" Psylocke asked,

"If a robot uses the device, wouldn't its own electronics be destroyed in the

process?"

Beast smiled slightly, "I wish that would be the case but it's highly

unlikely. EMP can't get through adamantium. An adamantium robot would be immune

to EMP since its adamantium armor would protect it,"

"Well, why don't we use adamantium to protect the Molecular Rearranger from

said EMP?" Cyclops asked, "We can surround it with adamantium,"

Beast said, "Okay, and how are we going to shoot off the Molecular Rearranger?

If it's surrounded with adamantium, we're not going to be able to get to the

trigger to shoot it. To protect electronics from EMP, you need to cover it

completely with adamantium. Is someone going to be inside that adamantium shell

to shoot it when they get close enough to shoot it off? Also, if that person is

inside that shell, how will he or she know when to shoot it? It's not like we

can put in a window for them to look out of. Nor will we be able to communicate

with the person on the inside since the adamantium will be cutting him or her

off from the outside world. Sure, we can protect the Molecular Rearranger from

the EMP, but doing so will also protect it from US trying to use it,"

Cyclops scratched his chin, deep in thought. Beast definitely had a point.

"I'll use my powers to teleport our enemy away," Thor said.

"That sounds like a plausible plan," Beast said, "But are you up to the task?

What if we have to do so for dozens or even hundreds of robots? You may be

powerful, but even you can get overwhelmed,"

Thor was confident in himself, "It doesn't matter if I must fight thousands.

I'll succeed in teleporting them all to a place unknown, where they could never

come back,"

"Heh, maybe we sh'go find Hulk and have 'im throw 'em out into space while

we're at it," Logan smirked.

Beast couldn't help but smirk, "Hulk, Thor, and you on the same team? That

would make for quite an interesting encounter since you guys have all fought one

another on several occasions,"

"Hopefully, whatever we have to face up against isn't too large," Thor said,

"That is because due to factors beyond my control, I can not create a large

portal,"

Beast smirked. He couldn't help himself. He knew of these factors that

prevented Thor from sometimes creating large portals. It usually had to do with

the alignment of the planets and the seasons.

"Yes, the current alignment of the planets prevent me from creating an overly

large portal," Thor commented.

"Why dontcha just say something like 'It's that time of month' or something?"

Logan smirked.

Thor ignored Logan's remark.

"When will the rest of the Avengers be here to pick you guys up?" Cyclops

asked.

"Shortly, probably in around half an hour," Captain America.

"In the meanwhile, we need to figure out a plan and a course of actions,"

Cyclops said, "It's pretty evident that something's going to happen really soon

so it's best that we come up with a plan and several contingency plans as well,"

Captain America nodded, "Agreed,"

The group headed for the school.

They paused for a moment to regard Ranma as he slept soundly on the steps.

Asuka wasn't there anymore, having gone inside to fetch her book. She figured

she might as well read her book while the gang tried to figure out what to do.

"Ranma, wake up," Jean said, crouching down to nudge at Ranma.

She nudged at Ranma. Ranma continued to sleep soundly on his back.

"Just kick him awake," Rogue muttered, still angry at him, "Like this-"

She kicked at his side. To her surprise, Ranma seemed to twist in his sleep at

the very moment, turning toward her incoming kick, trapping it under his armpit.

As he continued to turn, Rogue ended up falling backward on her backside, her

leg seized under Ranma.

"Hey, let go of my leg!" Rogue kicked at Ranma.

Ranma continued to twist in his sleep, adjusting himself so that he would now

be sleeping on his front. Rogue yelped in surprise as Ranma twisted around and

came to rest on top of her, his face resting on her breasts like they were

pillows.

"Eek!" was all Rogue could think of saying, a dark red blush on her cheeks.

She looked down and herself and suddenly realized Ranma had somehow mounted her

in a missionary position where she was on the bottom.

"Ranma!" Jean, Psylocke, and Storm quickly grabbed at the back of Ranma's

shirt trying to pull him off.

He weighed a ton and none of the girls could seemed to budge him. Rogue tried

to wrestle him off of her but he was on top of her in a way that her arms were

pinned at her sides.

Jean tried to use her telekinetic powers to lift Ranma off of Rogue but

realized that it was futile, that her powers had no effect on him.

"Get off of her!" Storm shouted toward Ranma, going a bit overboard and

stomping down on the back of Ranma's head in an attempt to wake him up.

Ranma yawned as he opened his eyes, wondering who woke him up. It took a short

moment for Ranma to take in his surroundings. When he did, he noticed Rogue was

under him in a missionary position.

He found himself looking at Rogue, a bit confused. Why was Rogue under him in

a missionary position?

"Rogue, I can't believe you would try and take advantage of me while I was

sleeping!"

Ranma didn't pay much attention as he sat by the corner of the War Room. He

was bouncing a ball against the wall and catching it. As to where he got the

ball, no one knows.

Rogue glared at him from where she was sitting. Oddly enough, she always

turned her attention away whenever Ranma happened to glance in her general

direction.

"If we work together as a team, we should be able to overcome whatever

Apocalypse has planned," Captain America said, "Be in a giant robot or a hundred

smaller ones, we should be able to handle the situation. There's only one EMP

generator so if there're a multiple robots, the one we need to keep is the one

that possess it,"

"I agree," Cyclops said, "But that is if there are multiple opponents, there's

no telling which one will possess it until after it's fired it off,"

"We should be able to tell relatively easily," Captain America stated, "The

EMP generator is relatively large and very long. We should be able to see it

without much trouble, even if it is protected behind adamantium,"

Cyclops nodded, "The problem is is exactly how we are going to be able to go

about keeping it distracted long enough for the Molecular Rearranger to be

brought in close enough to be used effectively. There is a chance we have to

deal with multiple opponents trying to prevent us from doing our job of

distracting that one robot,"

"And let's not forget that there's the chance that the adamantium could be

used to outfit Apocalypse's standing army," Beast stated, "For all we know, we

won't have to deal with adamantium robots and have to deal with adamantium-

armored Skrulls,"

Skrulls are alien shapeshifters that could assume any form the wished. They

could even assume the superhuman powers of some of the Heroes they shape shift

into with the use of proper devices and alterations to their bodies. Not

extremely hard to defeat, but them wearing adamantium armor was a totally

different story. Heck, even a human wearing adamantium armor would be very

tough.

"I have no gripes about hacking Skrulls to bits," Logan smirked.

Logan didn't particularly like Skrulls. A Skrull once took his form and

impersonated Logan on the team not too long ago. No one on the team had

suspected a thing, not until the real Logan had killed that Skrull in a vicious

fashion.

"Well, be it Skrulls or robots or his Horsemen, it is NOT going to be an easy

task," Cyclops stated, "For something like this, I'm pretty sure several teams

will need to come together to work together to defeat this threat,"

"Fantastic Four is ready to offer their help," Captain America said, "I spoke

with Mr. Fantastic and he and the team are ready to help out. They're still in

Europe at the moment so it will take some time for all of us to come together,"

"We should also contact X-Force, Defenders, Thunderbolts, and Alpha Flight,"

Cyclops

mentioned, "We should tell them about what's going to occur, if they haven't

started figuring things out on there own already that is,"

Captain America, "No need, we've already contacted them and brought them up to

date,"

Cyclops smiled, impressed, "That's good to hear. You guys are well on top of

things,"

"They aren't considered 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' fer nothin, One-Eye," Logan

smirked.

"Are we all going to meet up?" Cyclops asked, "We should all come together to

come up with a plan,"

Captain America said, "Maybe, but not all of them are readily available. All

of them are at the same stage as we are, aware that something's going to occur

but not too sure what. They're all over the world trying to anticipate where the

next attack from Apocalypse would be in hopes of stopping Apocalypse before he

acquired all the components, whatever they may be, to begin his attack on the

world,"

"Have any of them gotten anywhere?" Cyclops asked, "Have they encountered

Apocalypse?"

Captain America shook his head, "No. The X-Men have, thus far, come closest to

stopping Apocalypse, but this was long before any of us were even aware that he

was up to something,"

"Look, at the moment, the only plan we can come up with is to distract

whatever robot or Skrull or whatever that possess the EMP generator long enough

so we can get the Molecular Rearranger in close enough to use it," Captain

America said, "We're probably going to take heavy casualties in doing so, but

that seems like a plan we have to stick with until we can think of something

else in the meanwhile,"

At that moment, a voice could be heard, "Captain America, come in,"

Captain America reached into the hollow of his belt and pulled out a small

flat device. He pulled out his communicard, a device the Avengers used to

communicate with one another over vast distances that displayed the image of

whoever they were talking to on the card-like device.

"Captain America here," he spoke.

"This is Iron Man, we are just two minutes away from Xavier's school," came

Iron Man's voice.

"Okay, we'll be waiting for you guys outside," Captain America said, "Land the

plane in the field in the back of the building, there's no room in front,"

"Okay, we'll see you in a bit," they heard Iron Man's voice, "Iron Man out,"

"Well, it seems like the rest of our team's going to be here," Captain America

headed for the door, "We best be heading out to meet up with them,"

The group all headed for the door.

"Just curious, who would win in a fight, the X-Men or the Avengers?" Ranma

asked from out of the blue.

The team stopped to look at Ranma.

"I was just curious," Ranma said.

He scratched his team, "Hm, I think X-Men can beat the Avengers,"

Captain America cleared his throat, "Now's not the time to be discussing

trivial matters such as that. And just what makes you say something like that?"

Ranma jerked a thumb toward Jean and Psylocke, "They know telepathy, right?

Unless you guys can fight against having your mind screwed up, they can probably

take out your whole team, right?"

The three Avengers looked at one another.

"Heh, that'd be funny headline, 'Two girls beat up Avengers'," Ranma

chuckled, "Heh, girls beating up guys, that's funny,"

"What did you say?" Warbird became visibly angry.

"Really, do you NOT think before you speak?" Storm twitched, "I can't believe

you would bring something like that up in a situation like this. We are in the

middle of a meeting that could very well determine the outcome of what could be

a world-changing event,"

Ranma smiled meekly, "I guess you're right,"

Captain America turned back to Cyclops.

"He says stuff like that all the time," Cyclops said, "Even we've yet to get

used to it,"

"Seems so," Captain America cleared his throat.

"Just curious, I assume Iron Man's called Iron Man because his suit's made of

iron?" Ranma asked.

"More or less," Captain America wondered what Ranma was getting at.

"Wouldn't it be better if was made of adamantium?" Ranma asked, "He can call

himself Adamantium Man and kick ass,"

Everyone looked at one another.

"But then again, if he did do that, there would be no sense of tension in his

adventures, huh?" Ranma asked, "It'd be like me, where if I get in a fight with

someone, you already know the outcome so what's the use. No tension,"

"What are you talking about?" Jean asked, truly confused.

Asuka said, "Just ignore him,"

"Hey, all that I'm saying-" Ranma said.

"Yeah yeah," Asuka said, "We don't wanna hear any more of it. Just go back to

playing with your balls,"

Ranma smirked, "Heh,"

Asuka pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You're so childish, Ranma,"

new stuff 8/23

"Y'know what I think the X-Men are?" Ranma commented.

"What?" Asuka asked.

The two of them were at the very back of the group, following everyone toward

the front of the school to meet with the rest of the Avengers that have arrived.

"I think Xavier has a graveyard of skeletons in his closet and the X-Men are

around to deal with 'em when they come to beat him up," Ranma chuckled, "He

seems like a saint and all, but I'm sure he's got more skeletons in his closet

than most of the X-Men members combined,"

"Ranma, that's such a mean thing to say," Asuka said, "I can't believe you

said that,"

Ranma shrugged, "Well, Xavier seems cool, but think about it, he let us stay

and look how much trouble I caused the X-Men. I wonder if he does that with

other people as well,"

Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke approached them.

"Can we speak to you about something?" Storm asked.

"Sure," Ranma said, curious, "What is it?"

"I'm gonna head on ahead," Asuka said, figuring it was something important.

She had a funny feeling they were going to discuss with Ranma his crazy antics,

especially the panty incident.

"We've decided to forgive you, but under one condition," Storm said on behalf

of herself and Rogue and Psylocke.

Ranma happened to be trailing the group. He felt as if he was just tagging

along instead of actually taking part in the group's activities.

"Huh?" he asked, confused, "Forgive me? On what?"

"Have you forgotten already?" Storm suddenly became angry.

Ranma scratched his head, "Um, well, yeah,"

Storm gritted her teeth but too a moment to calm down, "We forgive you for

that stunt you pulled back there,"

"What stunt?" Ranma asked.

"You're kidding me, right?" Psylocke asked.

"I've done a lot of stuff that made you girls angry at me," Ranma stated, "You

kinda need to narrow it down on what you're forgiving me on. I dunno if it's for

accidentally letting all those criminals free in The Vault, or using holographic

device in the Danger Room as a holographic porno movie, or infecting the

library's computer with a virus or-"

"So it was you!" Storm said.

Ranma give a shy smile, "Oops, I shouldn'tve said that last one, huh?"

"Why are you like this, Ranma?" Psylocke asked, "Why do you do the stuff that

you do?"

Ranma said, "Hey, I ain't doing the stuff intentionally. What, you think I hop

on the computer and go 'Ooh, let's find out what virus I can download'? I don't

do that. Shit happens, and it just so happens that I'm around it when it

happens,"

"But why do you act the way you do?" Psylocke asked, "It's obvious you have

complete disregard to authority and are inconsiderate of others,"

Ranma said nothing.

"Don't you understand that we will probably be taking part in what could

perhaps be a world-changing event?" Storm asked, "You act like you don't care

one bit about this. You're going around trying to steal underwear and such,"

Ranma said, "Actually, I didn't do any such thing,"

"Right, whatever," Rogue said, not really believing him.

Ranma said in a serious, "Okay, so what do you want?"

The three girls were surprised to hear this. Was Ranma offering a truce?

"If you want me to leave this world, I'll leave," Ranma said, "If I bother you

that much, just tell me and I'll pack up my stuff and leave,"

"Y-you will?" Psylocke was surprised to hear that.

"I can open a portal to my world," Ranma said, "If you really want me to leave

that badly, I'll leave,"

"But what about the engine?" Storm asked.

"The engine is trivial," Ranma said, "It's always been trivial. I could've

made the engine without ever've setting foot on this world. I'm here because I

like adventures. However, if my fondness for adventures really bothers you that

much, I'll leave,"

The three girls looked at one another. Was Ranma bluffing? They couldn't tell.

They could never tell with Ranma.

"I don't understand why you're here in the first place," Storm asked, "What

made you choose this world to visit?"

"No reason," Ranma said, "If I didn't visit this world, I would've visited

another world. People go on vacations to different countries. I go on vacations

to different worlds. If it isn't you guys asking me why this world, it would be

someone else asking the same thing for their world,"

The girls were silent.

"I don't mean to be a dick, but I also know you girls like having me around,"

Ranma said.

"W-what?" they all said in surprise.

"Why else am I still here?" Ranma asked.

"Don't think yer somethin' like God's gift t'women or somethin', Sugah," Rogue

said, a bit angry.

Ranma chuckled, "So, tell me, why am I still here?"

"What do you mean?" Storm asked.

"I mentioned on several occasions that I wanted to leave the group," Ranma

said, "But every time, you guys ask me to stay, why is that? Could it be because

you want me hanging around?"

"We want you hanging around because we don't want you starting some war

between mutants and humans after you do something to acquire the vibranium or

adamantium," Storm stated, "Sorry to rain on your parade, Ranma, but that's one

of the main reasons,"

Ranma sounded almost offended, "Do you honest to goodness think I CAN'T get

the vibranium or adamantium without starting some kind war? Not to sound

arrogant, but for your information I betcha I alone can get my hands on what I

need faster, more discreetly, and better than the entire X-Men combined. You

don't know me and the things I've done and accomplished before,"

"You don't know the X-Men and what we've accomplished before," Storm retorted.

"No, I don't, but I can find out if I wanted to," Ranma said, "What have you

guys done? Save the world a couple of times? Fought aliens? Blew up robots? Me,

I've been there and done that as well...and alone. I'm not trying to show off

or nothing, but I'm sorry, you don't really know me and what I've gone through

or what I'm capable of. Heck, I'm sure you guys still don't believe in half the

stuff that I've claimed, like my having been God,"

Storm said nothing. That was true. The entire team believed Ranma to be some

kind of extremely powerful being from a different dimension or far away world.

He just happened to be so astronomically powerful that he would definitely be

viewed as a god to anyone that crossed his path even though he really wasn't.

They believed that he was so powerful that he started believing he used to be a

god.

"The point I'm getting at is I could've left the team a long long time ago,"

Ranma said, "But you guys insisted that I stay, believing that you guys could

help me out on your own terms. Me, I stayed around because I was in the mood to

stay. I could just've easily've left the team had my mood been slightly

different at that point in time,"

"Do you think it would've been better had you left then?" Storm asked

curiously.

Ranma shook his head, "No,"

"Really?" she was surprised to hear that. He didn't even hesitate in answering

that question with a 'no'.

"Had I left the team," Ranma said sincerely, "I would've gotten what I needed

and gone home long ago. However, I wouldn'tve gotten to know you guys. And

frankly, everyone I've gotten to know here made the trip to this world very

interesting,"

"T-thanks," all three girls blushed.

Ranma sighed, "Girls, you HAVE to stop doing that, all that blushing and

stuff. It's freaking me out,"

"W-what? Why? How?" Psylocke asked.

"Cause it makes me think you girls are suddenly starting to like me or

something," he said, "I don't want you girls to like me. That's one of the main

reasons why I act the way I do. The more you dislike me, the less chance there

is of you liking me,"

"Wait, are you telling me that all of the things you do, it's all an act?"

Storm was shocked.

Ranma shrugged, "Not entirely. I just happen to have gotten so sick and tired

of girls being jealous of the stuff I do that I don't care anymore,"

"What makes you think we would get jealous or something?" Storm asked, "And

what makes you think we would even like you? We barely tolerate you at this

point in time,"

"So why the hell are you forgiving me?" Ranma asked, "Sounds like to me that

it's something a girl would do to a guy she kinda likes,"

"W-why you!" Storm gritted her teeth, "You honest to goodness think I would

like you or have some kinda attraction toward you?"

Ranma thought for a moment before said, "Well, yeah,"

Storm's mouth became agape with surprise.

"I saw how you were looking at me when you found out I like children back in

the Laundromat," Ranma said, "You like children too and probably saw me as a

good potential father. Sorry, I'm not interested in having children anytime

soon. Also, if you couldn't tolerate me, then why did you feel almost

disappointed when I considered that date to the Laundromat a date? Seems like to

me you wanted some kinda real date, like to dinner and a movie or something.

Kinda odd why you would want something like that from a guy you can barely

tolerate,"

Storm said nothing.

"Psylocke here also seems to like me," Ranma jerked a thumb toward her, "If

she could barely tolerate it, then it sure is odd why she would want us to go

out on a date again after the first one was interrupted. If she could barely

tolerate me, she would consider that date a date. Heck, now that I think of it,

if either of you two could barely tolerate me, you two would've told me to

promptly get lost when I asked either of you out,"

Everyone was deathly silent.

Ranma smirked toward Rogue. Rogue blushed when she saw him looking at her.

"You, you don't even know if you like me," Ranma said.

"H-how so?" she asked.

"You are caught up with the fact that you can touch me without your powers

absorbing mine," Ranma said, "You're more attracted to that than me. However,

eventually, that association toward touch is gonna end up transferring to me.

It's only a matter of time before you suddenly realize that there's a potential

for a relationship there and start growing feelings for me,"

Rogue was silent. Was she attracted to touch?

"I-I can't believe you think like this," Storm said, "You don't even know us

that well. For you to claim that you know that we are in love with you or

something is ridiculous and downright obnoxious,"

Ranma said, "I never said you were in love with me. I said you had feelings

for me. Given time, it will turn into love,"

Storm laughed, "That's preposterous. You should hear yourself, you're claiming

that, down the line, we're going to fall in love with you,"

Ranma said, "Well, I hope I end up wrong because it's gonna hurt you guys a

lot more than you believe,"

"W-what do you mean by that?" Psylocke asked.

"I hope you girls don't fall for me because it's sure going to hurt a lot when

I leave," Ranma said, "I AM leaving this world at the end of all of this and

there's no way I'm staying. I'm not bringing anyone of you girls back home with

me,"

"And what makes you think we would want to come with you back to your world?"

Psylocke retorted, "We have friends and some of us family here that we would

never want to leave,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "That's good to hear. All the more reason for you guys to

not want to come with me back to my world. That way, you won't be hurt when you

realize I can never love you back,"

The three girls looked at each other.

"Come again?" Storm asked.

Ranma smirked, "Even if I wanted to fall in love, I can't,"

"Y-you can't fall in love?" Storm was shocked to hear.

"Nevermind," Ranma said, waving his hand dismissively.

The girls looked at one another. They couldn't help but be intrigued by that

statement but they knew that it would be useless to pursue an answer because

Ranma would tell them no more.

"So tell me, what's this condition you had for me for me to be forgiven?"

Ranma changed the subject, "I'll bite and humor you,"

Storm narrowed her eyes toward Ranma, "Now did you have to go and say

something like that 'I'll bite and humor you'?"

"So, what's the condition?" Ranma said, "Keep in mind that, although I prefer

to be on a person's good side, it don't bother me none if I'm forgiven or not.

The girls all looked at one another, wondering if they should even bother

telling Ranma. It seemed like their conversation was a complete waste of time,

that Ranma would not change for anyone but himself. But then again, they

couldn't help but believe they found out quite a bit about Ranma in that short

span of time, that he revealed quite a bit about his persona.

"Well, the condition was that you try and change your ways," Storm said, "But

since it seems like, based on what you told us, you're not going to change, it's

useless for us to bother even asking,"

"Change in what way?" Ranma asked curious.

"As in stop doin' th'things y'do," Rogue jumped in, "Y'always say unnecessary

things and never leave well enough alone,"

"Right, you want me to change my actual personality," Ranma smirked, "Why

dontcha just tell me to you want me to change who I am?"

"Not completely," Storm said, "But we'd like for you to actually try and make

an effort to tone things down, like in no more rude or sexist comments. A

compromise in a sense. We've already realized you won't change and stop calling

us 'girls' no matter how many times we try and tell you to stop, but we would

like you to try and change the other habits, like your weird fascination with

porn,"

Ranma said, "Hey, there ain't nothing wrong with that,"

"Yeah, well, you may be right, but why'd you have to go searching for that

stuff while we're in the room?" Storm asked, "Can't you be a bit more

considerate of other people's feelings? In case you haven't noticed, we find it

rather offensive,"

Ranma thought about it for a moment, "Fine, I could curb that. I could be a

bit more considerate about stuff like that,"

"As well as with the sexist comments?" Storm asked.

"I'll try," Ranma said, "But I ain't guaranteeing anything. You telling me

stop making comments is like me asking you to stop being African American,"

Storm narrowed her eyes, "See, it's comments like that I wish you'd stop

making. You may not find them offensive, but others might,"

Ranma sighed, "Jeez, you girls are sure high-maintenance. You want so much

crap dontcha,"

They glared at Ranma.

Ranma crossed his arms over his chest, "I ain't budging. Glare the living crap

outta me, but I ain't changing that. Keep glaring at me and I'll take back my

offer to try and curb my antics,"

The girls sighed, "Fine,"

Ranma was definitely incorrigible. He was so much like Logan it wasn't funny.

He really didn't care who he offended. But with Logan, at least he changed for

the better and became a bit more considerate the longer he spent his time on the

X-Men instead of on his own.

Ranma had a crude sense of humor to him that most people rather enjoyed.

Unfortunately, that kind of humor females tended to find rather offensives. Guys

most likely loved his sense of humor. Perhaps that was why Ranma and Logan

seemed to get along so well, when they're not trying to hurt each other that is.

They shared common jokes. Heck, even Beast joked around with Ranma, and Beast

seemed the most unlikely to enjoy such jokes, his sense of humor tending to be

more sophisticated. It must be a guy thing.

Ranma smirked, "How about this? Fine, I'll try and be more considerate and

curb my crazy antics...but I'll even go so far as to act on my best behavior,

under one condition,"

"If it's something stupid like us kissing each other or something, forget it,"

Storm said coldly.

Ranma chuckled, "No. Nothing of the sort,"

"Fine, what condition?" she asked.

"You guys quit getting jealous whenever I interact with some girl other than

yourselves," Ranma said.

"What?" they all said in unison.

Ranma smirked, "Think you can handle that?"

"We do not get jealous," Storm said for all three of them, "W-what makes you

think we get jealous?"

Ranma smirked as he quickly went on ahead, slowing down next to Jean.

He extended his hand toward her.

"What?" she asked, looking at the hand.

"I want to hold your hand," Ranma said bluntly.

Jean blushed, "M-my hand? Whatever for?"

"What, I can't hold your hand while we walk?" Ranma asked.

"I'm a married woman, Ranma," Jean said, gesturing toward her wedding band on

the ring finger of her left hand.

"Gee, I didn't know that it was considered adultery to hold a person's hand,"

Ranma said.

Jean became embarrassed. She didn't realize she was jumping to conclusions

like that.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean it like that,"

She held her hand out as Ranma took hold of it. She had no idea what kind of

Japanese custom it was but figured it couldn't hurt her any. They were only

holding hands. Perhaps in Japanese culture, it meant something different than in

other cultures. She wasn't too sure.

"Ranma!" Storm, Rogue, and Psylocke called out to him. They didn't hear what

they had been saying. All they saw was Ranma taking Jean's hand and holding it

as they walked along and immediately became jealous.

Ranma turned around and smirked, "Well, it seems like you've already lost. I

guess I don't hafta be on my best behavior anymore,"

"What's going on?" Jean was confused.

Cyclops happened to glance back and catch sight of Ranma hold his wife's hand.

"What the?" Cyclops began.

Ranma saw Cyclops glaring at him.

"Um, I dunno what came over your wife," Ranma feigned innocence, "She suddenly

wanted to hold my hand. I was against it, but she insisted,"

"Hey, what's funny is that this is a school yet I'm surprised there aren't

students of the school standing around wanting to know what's up and what the

Avengers and X-Men are all together," Ranma chuckled.

"That's because most of the students are very studious and are inside," Jean

stated.

"How convenient," Ranma chuckled.

"Look, does it matter?" Jean asked, a bit annoyed. She was a bit angry at him

for teasing her and Cyclops like that.

Ranma shrugged.

Captain America approached the other half of the Avengers team and went about

introducing them. The group was all gathered around the back of the school where

the second plane had landed.

"You know Iron Man," Captain America gestured toward an armored person

sporting red and gold armor and still reminded Ranma of a supped up boomer.

However, he knew there was a human on the inside.

"No hard feelings I hope," Ranma gave a shy smile, "I hope I didn't shake the

suit too hard that you got a concussion or something,"

"No hard feelings," came Iron Man's voice via an internal speaker within the

helmet he was wearing. It made Ranma wonder if the man under the suit was

paranoid about people recognizing his voice but didn't think much about it.

Iron Man added, "That sure taught me a lesson,"

"Heh, I'm sure you've already started developing some kinda suit that prevents

that, huh?" Ranma smirked.

Iron Man said nothing, Ranma having guessed correctly. He didn't want to give

off any indications that Ranma was right. He liked creating suits of armor

specifically designed to fight certain individuals and had already begun

developing a suit almost immediately after his first encounter with Ranma near

The Vault. He couldn't help but feel rather ashamed at how easily he was

defeated. Who the hell ever thought to shake him violently enough that he would

end up falling unconscious within his suit? That was either incredibly smart or

incredibly lucky of Ranma to have come upon that tactic.

"Heh, good luck creating an Anti-God armor," Ranma chuckled.

"I don't believe in God, I believe in science," Iron Man stated.

"Heh, you're stupid then," Ranma stated.

Iron Man was silent but couldn't help but feel angry. Although that was a

simple insult, it seemed to be more insulting than any other insult he had heard

aimed at him before.

"Yep, I said it," Ranma smirked.

"Look, most of the God's I've encountered are nothing more than a bunch of

super powered brats," Iron Man stated.

Thor raised a finger to say something.

"You know I'm not talking about you, Thor," Iron Man added.

Thor decided to say nothing. He didn't mean to mention that he resented the

comment. He was about to mention who Ranma really was.

"How do you deal with stuff like magic then?" Ranma smirked. If Iron Man

believed in nothing but science, he believed Iron Man would be in for a rude

awakening if he ever met Lina or Luna Inverse, especially Luna.

"I hate magic," Iron Man muttered, "It just wrecks how I view the world. But

still, I believe in science, not God,"

"Interesting philosophy," Ranma shrugged, "It's wrong, but interesting

nonetheless,"

"People are all open to their own interpretation of the world and how things

work," Iron Man said.

Ranma said, "Well, your view's so wrong the guy who invented the word is

laughing at you right now. As a matter of fact, I'm positive your 'science' is

more flawed than you believe,"

"And what makes you think that?" Iron Man asked.

"Because it's beyond your comprehension," Ranma shrugged, "I'm not gonna

bother explaining it,"

Iron Man said nothing, wondering what Ranma meant by that. He had no idea who

Ranma was nor he him.

"Ranma, didn't you say you were gonna try and curb your behavior?" Storm

asked, realizing Ranma was basically trying to get a rise out of Iron Man. They

didn't know each other and was already showing indications of animosity toward

one another.

Ranma sighed, "Fine, whatever. Nice t'meetcha, Iron Man, I look forward to

teaming up wit'cha,"

"Um, yes, likewise," Iron Man was a bit caught off-guard.

The girls looked at each other, surprised that Ranma seemed to actually make

an effort at being more courteous.

Captain America cleared his throat, wanted to get Ranma's attention.

"Oh yeah, there are more," Ranma gave a shy smile.

"This is She-Hulk," Captain America said as he gestured toward a very tall

woman that had green skin and green hair and green eyes. She stood almost a foot

taller than Ranma, dwarfing even someone as tall as Thor. Despite the green

skin, she was a very beautiful woman and that this jovial and carefree aura to

her.

Ranma regarded her for a moment, as if he recognized her from somewhere.

"How're you doing?" She-Hulk smiled, offering her hand.

Ranma took it in his, her hand basically engulfing his. To She-Hulk's

surprise, Ranma had a very firm handshake. She believed a firm handshake usually

represented a strong personality.

She regarded him for a moment, noticing that he seemed completely at ease, not

one bit intimidated by her size in relation to his own. That was quite

refreshing to find someone not intimidated by her size. But then again, perhaps

she shouldn't be surprised since she was well aware that this man had somehow

defeated both Iron Man and Thor in a fight, an encounter neither of them spoke

in detail about except to mention that they did indeed lose.

"She-Hulk, huh?" Ranma asked, "Hey, are you that 'Hulk' person with supposedly

unlimited strength the angrier you get?"

She-Hulk gave a quick laugh, "You're mistaking me for my cousin, Hulk. That's

definitely my cousin you're talking about, especially when you mention about how

he gets stronger the angrier he gets. He much bigger than myself,"

"Hey, can I fight him?" Ranma asked, "If he's really strong, you think he'd be

able to put of a good fight against me? I haven't had a really good sparring

match in ages,"

"What am I, chopped liver?" Logan sneered.

Ranma chuckled, "Well...yeah. You get knocked out too easily,"

The Avengers, save for Thor, looked at one another. They didn't really know

what to think but they had to admit that Logan was quite a fighter and for Ranma

to find him an easy sparring partner must mean we was and extremely formidable

fighter.

"I don't keep in contact with my cousin, but if I see him, I'll be sure to

send him your way," She-Hulk smiled, already liking Ranma.

"Thanks," Ranma said.

She had nothing against Logan, but she found it rather amusing that Ranma

would actually dismiss someone like him. It takes guts to dismiss Logan's

fighting prowess. Logan had even fought Hulk on occasions and is able to put up

a good fight, at least until Hulk got really angry.

"This here's Scarlet Witch," Captain America gestured toward a woman wearing

mostly red. She sported a tight-fitting red outfit with long red boots and a red

cape and red hair. Perhaps it was because she had similar hair to Jean Gray

because Ranma noticed they looked somewhat similar. But then again, perhaps it

was because all Caucasian looked alike to someone Asian. She also sported a

piece of headgear that seem a bit like a red crown to Ranma.

"How're y'doing?" Ranma bowed to her.

She hesitated for a moment before bowing, a bit unaccustomed to Ranma's

greeting. She had been about to shake his hand like She-Hulk had.

Ranma regarded her for a moment as he noticed a sense of familiarity to her.

She had familiar eyes.

"You must be related to Magneto," Ranma pointed, finally putting it together.

Scarlet Witch's eyes widened in surprised, "Yes, I am. How did you know?"

She cast a glance toward the X-Men. The X-Men shrugged and shook their head,

indicating that they never divulged such information about her to the man before

her.

"You have eyes like Magneto," Ranma said, "You must be his daughter,"

"Okay, here's where I think I should start freaking out after seeing Ranma's

observational skills," Psylocke commented, "How in the world can you figure

something like that out? Lots of people have blue eyes like her,"

Ranma said, "Lots of people have blue eyes, perhaps, but the color of the eyes

mean nothing in determining relations to people. It's the patterns of the eyes

that determine it,"

"Eye patterns are unique," Jean stated, "They're like fingerprints. No two are

alike,"

Ranma nodded, "You're right, but they can be similar which usually represents

some kinds blood relation,"

The X-Men said nothing, simply flabbergasted at hearing this. They were in a

state of shock at Ranma's sense of perception. But then again, for all the know,

Ranma could've read into Scarlet Witch's eyes and found out that bit of

information and pretended to have gathered the information through other means.

"So, you're related to Magneto, huh?" Ranma asked, "You're probably his

daughter or something,"

"Um, yes, I am," was all she could say, every bit as shocked as everyone else.

"You're not some spy, are you?" Ranma asked, "I heard Magneto's a bad guy so

it's kinda natural to assume-"

"She's no spy," Captain America interjected, "And for your information, she

and her father don't get along and she's a valued member of our team. There have

been many times where she's risked her life helping us out,"

Ranma said, "All right. I was just wondering. No need to get your-"

He stopped with the comment, about to say 'No need to get your panties in a

bunch'. He figured he should try very hard to curb his crude comments. The girls

noticed his efforts to change himself.

Looking around, Ranma noticed that was it, "So, the entire Avengers team is

here? That's a small team,"

Iron Man shook his head, "No, the rest of the members are back at the base. We

actually dropped them off before we got here which is why it took a bit longer

than expected. We're spreading forces are out thinly, hoping to be close enough

to wherever Apocalypse may strike to respond. It may not be as effective as

having the entire team there, but at least there's a chance he could be

distracted long enough by whatever members responding for the rest of the team

to arrive in time,"

"Ranma smirked, "That's good, everyone isn't here. I don't wanna meet anyone

else. If this was a story, there's already around half a dozen more characters

than need be. Imagine if you're a reader, you know how confusing this story

would be with some many characters running around? Heck, even the author would

lose track at this rate. Heck, he probably did...like whatever happened to

Nightcrawler or Xavier?"

"I'm here," Nightcrawler said, waving a hand.

"What are you talking about?" Asuka asked Ranma.

She-Hulk smirked but said nothing.

"He's cool and should play a bigger role," Ranma gestured toward Nightcrawler.

"Who are you talking to, Ranma?" Jean asked, confused, much like everyone

else.

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nevermind. I'm just spewing random stuff no

one here understands,"

"It's obvious no one understands cause what you're saying is so confusing,"

Asuka stated.

"From now on, Nightcrawler can chill with me," Ranma said, "He's probably

really useful if you let him do stuff,"

Everyone stared in confusion.

"What, you think having him hang around you would make him instantly more

useful?" Jean asked, "He's always very useful and valued member of the team,"

"Thanks," Nightcrawler smiled.

"It's too bad he wasn't around for those panty raids," Ranma stated, "His

teleport would've come quite in handy,"

Everyone glared at Ranma, especially the girls.

"Oh shit, I wasn't supposed to say that aloud, huh?" Ranma said.

Captain America turned toward the X-Men, "Do we even want to know what Ranma's

talking about?"

"No," Storm found herself getting a headache.

"Ranma, Ah thought y'were gonna try and keep those unnecessary comments to a

minimum?" Rogue asked, "Have already forgotten?"

"Fine fine," Ranma sighed, "Wait, just one more. Nightcrawler, you're a

priest, right? It must really fuck you up whenever you think that the 'God' that

you prayed to used to be me, huh?"

"Ranma!" the entire X-Men team seemed to shout at him in unison.

"Man, when will you ever shut up?" Asuka muttered.

Ranma held up his hands defensively, "All right, I'll quit. Jeez,"

"We have other things to discuss," Captain America said, secretly glad that

Ranma wasn't on the Avengers. He didn't even want to guess what the X-Men had to

deal with while Ranma was around. He seemed the perverted type and would

probably really make the females of the group edgy.

He turned toward Iron Man, "Any word on the Molecular Rearranger?"

Iron Man shook his head, "We are still awaiting clearance. It shouldn't be

long until we get our hands on one. Have you and the X-Men discussed a course of

action?"

"We can discuss it inside," Cyclops said as he headed for the school.

Together, everyone followed him.

Back in the War Room, the group had a quick discussion on what their plans

was. It was during that discussion where Ranma was actually brought into the

conversation, that he would actually be leading the defensive assault against

whatever Apocalypse threw at them. It wasn't until Ranma decided to finally show

interest in actually help out did the team suddenly change their plans around

completely.

"Why couldn't you offer to help out earlier?" Cyclops asked in annoyance,

"Now we need to rethink our entire plan,"

Ranma said, "Why're you getting angry at me? Just because I don't pay

particular attention to your discussion about the plan you guys are trying to

come up with doesn't mean I don't care about what's gonna happen. I just don't

bother paying attention to because I think planning ahead is stupid,"

"S-stupid? Why do you say that?" Cyclops had to ask.

"Because, as prepared as you think you are going into a situation, you'll

never be prepared," Ranma said, "I've learned that through experience and

believe in adapting to situations on the fly. There's nothing wrong with you

guys trying to be prepared. I just happen to not think that way so leave me

outta your plans until the situation arises,"

Cyclops said, "Well, at least this way, with you believing in adaptation and

us in preparation, we've got all bases covered. In the meanwhile, we'd like for

you to help,"

Ranma shrugged, "Fine, whatever, I said I'll help,"

They went about discussing the plan after there, revising it so that Ranma

would be leading the defensive strike while the others provided support. Of

course, Ranma didn't pay must attention to the plan at hand. He figured all he

needed to do was destroy the robot possessing the EMP generator. That way, it

would allow the others to use the Molecular Rearranger to destroy to rest of the

remaining adamantium robots.

After the X-Men discussed their plans in the War Room, they all headed outside

with the Avengers to walk the Avengers to their plane and see them off. The plan

they had was a very simple one, that Ranma would simply lead the defensive

strike against Apocalypse army.

Beast and Thor found themselves walking along at the back of the group as they

headed for the school exit. Everyone else had continued on ahead, stopping to

talk at the plane to say their goodbyes before parting.

"Wait," Beast said.

Thor turned toward Beast, "Yes?"

Beast said, "You let Ranma borrow your Hammer,"

He hadn't gotten around to asking that until now. He had been dying to find

out the reasoning behind Thor's way of thinking and Ranma's role.

Thor nodded, "Yes, I let him borrow my Hammer,"

"How did that happen?" Beast asked, curiosity getting the better of him, "I

know you well enough they you never let someone borrow your Hammer. Why did you

give it to Ranma,"

"He requested it," Thor answered, an answer that surprised Beast.

"Requested it?" Beast asked, "And you give it to him? This must definitely be

a first, that you let someone borrow your Hammer,"

The rest of the X-Men approached the two of them and stopped by where Beast

and Thor were, curious as to what was going on. The rest of the Avengers had

already gotten into the plane and patiently awaited Thor.

"Whatcha guy's talkin' about?" Rogue asked curiously, wondering what they were

discussing alone.

"How had Ranma managed to convince Thor to let him borrow his Hammer,"

Beast answered.

"Yeah, what's the deal with that?" Jean asked curious, believing she was

speaking on the behalf of the rest of the team.

None of the X-Men was really aware of the connection between Thor and Ranma

and how Ranma had managed to 'borrow' his Hammer. Now was the perfect time to

ask.

Thor said, "If the Almighty Ranma made a simple request such as my letting him

borrow my Hammer, I would be more than happy to oblige,"

Beast, used to Thor's way of speech of occasionally saying words like 'thou'

and 'thee' and 'art' and such, noticed that Thor seemed to be speaking like a

normal person, something ne never knew Thor was capable of doing.

"This doesn't make sense," Beast said, "Why would you give your Hammer to

Ranma to borrow?"

"Do you know who Ranma is?" Thor asked.

"A really powerful individual," Rogue reluctantly but sincerely admitted.

"His power is beyond comprehension," Thor said, "It is even beyond my

comprehension,"

The X-Men all looked at one another, surprised by the remark. For someone like

Thor, arguably this world's most powerful Hero, to say something like that was s

something not to be taken lightly.

"Just how powerful?" Beast asked.

"Have you not heard?" Thor said in annoyance, "It is beyond my comprehension.

You are asking me to describe something I can not describe,"

"Who is he?" Cyclops asked, "You seem to know more about him than we do,"

"He used to be the previous God, before he passed his throne over to Urd,"

Thor said, "He walks the Heavens along side Urd and possess the same powers as

Urd,"

Everyone was silent. Ranma had mentioned that but everyone took that with a

grain of salt. They half believed him but not entirely. They believed he was

just some super-powerful individual from some different dimension that was

visiting this world and had no intent of attacking this world, most likely a

first from their point of view.

Thor said, "Ranma is someone never to be crossed,"

"Y'say that like you're scared of him," Logan smirked.

"If you know him, you'll understand," Thor stated, which seemed to shut Logan

up and make him wonder exactly who Ranma was.

"How do you know who he is?" Beast asked.

"The Asgardian race all know of Him and Urd," Thor said, "Much like how we

revere a god, and those gods revere a god, and those gods revere a god, and so

on, Ranma is as at the highest level of that tree. He is at the level where

there is no god for Him to revere because no one is higher than He. His power is

beyond comprehension,"

Everyone remained silent. Ranma had indeed claimed to have been God on a few

occasions but they took that comment with a grain of salt, that he was some God

of some race, much like Thor was.

He took the opportunity to wave off his team, to let them know that he was

going to stay around for a bit and they could head back to the base without him,

that he would catch up with them shortly.

Captain America nodded in acknowledgement before disappearing into the plane.

Everyone shielded their eyes from the dust stirred up as the plane took off to

the skies and flew away from the school.

When the plane was gone, Ranma, whom had been chatting it up with Captain

America turned his attention back onto the group and approached them.

"So, what does that mean? Can he can wipe out this universe of ours if he

wanted to?" Beast asked.

Thor nodded, "If he wanted to, yes,"

"That's a really fearsome power," Beast said nervously.

"He is a person that should be feared, but it is unnecessary," Thor said.

"How come?" Beast asked.

"Because He is kind," Thor said, "Just like Urd. Just like all the previous

God before Him,"

"A kind God?" Beast asked from a logical point of view, "I thought God would

be objective, neither good nor bad. If God was kind, wouldn't that mean no

suffering?"

"Whatcha guys talkin' about?" Ranma asked curiously as he and Asuka walked up

to them.

Everyone turned to looked at Ranma. For some odd reason, after hearing what

little they heard Thor speak of Ranma seemed to have changed their perception of

him. This guy used to be God? But he's perverted and usually said incredibly

obnoxious things. How can someone like that be God?

"Um, Thor was telling us about how you used to be God," Beast stated.

Ranma shrugged, "Yeah, I used to be. What about it?"

"I can't see it," Psylocke said honestly, "I know you claimed it before, but

I'm pretty sure none of us believed you. And from your antics, I doubt anyone

could possibly believe you're a kind God as Thor claims,"

"So?" Ranma said, "I'd be more surprised if you believed me than not. Just

outright believing what I say as true is just stupid. Heh, Thor considers me a

kind God, huh?"

"He said how you and Urd are kind Gods," Psylocke stated.

"If you're this kind God, then how come there's suffering?" Beast asked

curiously. That was definitely a question worth asking.

Ranma said, "I 'used' to be God. I'm not one anymore. Urd's your so-called

'kind' God nowadays,"

"Okay, if Urd's a kind God, how come there's suffering?" Beast rephrased his

question.

"What makes you think there's 'suffering'?" Ranma asked, "If God wasn't kind,

then there would be no death,"

Ranma's face was rather serious. This was because he figured now was a good to

explain some things about himself to the group since everyone was there.

Everyone was going to find out who he was sooner or later. Whether they wanted

to believe it or not was their prerogative.

"What?" everyone asked.

"We don't understand," Beast said.

"Of course you wouldn't," Ranma grinned, "It's beyond comprehension,"

Everyone was silent. Was Ranma using that as an excuse to avoid explaining

something he didn't know. They recalled Ranma saying something similar to Iron

Man earlier when he asked what made Ranma believe in the claim that his own view

of science was flawed.

Jean couldn't help but look at Ranma oddly. Was this the same Ranma Thor was

talking about, the one that she just saw accidentally break Captain America's

shield and ask if Captain America really needed such a shield? He seemed to act

very unlikely like that of her interpretation of God.

Ranma smirked, "Y'want me to try and explain some of the things I know to ya?

It might very well change the way you look at life,"

Everyone looked at one another before they all seemed to nod in unison.

"Let's see if I can make it somewhat understandable. What is your idea of

'suffering', pain, right?" Ranma asked, "That's rather petty. There's a lot more

things worse than physical and mental pain. But guess what? Your kind God

actually made it so you guys never hafta experience anything worse than simply

physical and mental pain. The problem is is that you guys never experienced it

to appreciate the 'suffering' you feel is nothing compared to it,"

"I think I understand," Beast said.

"For example, the love of your life dies and you feel anguish, like you no

longer have a reason to live. That's pretty painful," Ranma said, "So what? Be a

dumb fuck and kill yourself. The world is better off without people like that

who take what they have for granted. Why? Because you haven't experienced the

kinda real suffering that would make you WANT to suffer the anguish of losing

the love of your life every day just to avoid such things as REAL suffering,"

Everyone was silent as Ranma's words seemed to make sense.

"Of course, you guys bitch and complain when you suffer from such anguish from

the loss of a loved one and such," Ranma said, "You guys curse God for letting

hafta go through such 'suffering'. What's really funny is that you can kill

yourself and be released from that suffering. That's your kind God being doubly

kind to you, to give you the release of death from such 'suffering',"

"What about immortals?" Beast asked, "What if they feel such so-called

'suffering' but they're immortal but can't kill themselves,"

Ranma laughed, "There's no form of TRUE immortality. People who are so-called

immortal can't die, right? Wrong, they can die and can released from their

suffering. The problem is they haven't found out how to achieve death, so

therefore, it seems like they're immortal,"

Everyone was deathly silent as they let those words sink in.

"God is VERY kind," Ranma said, a bit annoyed, "People're just too stupid to

realize that they don't suffer and that death is an option. That's two forms of

pleasure right there, the fact that they don't suffer and the pleasure that they

can end it all if they wanted to. The problem is that they consider 'petty'

things like physical and metal pain a form suffering,"

"That's really heavy," Logan said, even his visage somber.

"What kinda suffering is there that you consider 'real suffering'?" Psylocke

asked.

"It's beyond comprehension," Ranma said, "But to try and give you a basic

grasp, picture the physical pain of passing a kidney stone the size of a

quarter, while being burned alive, while seeing all your loved ones raped and

killed right in front of you, okay? Multiply that pain by, say, a trillion

times,"

Everyone's face became pale, even Logan's, and he had thought he had been

through quite a bit of suffering.

"T-that sounds like quite a bit of 'real suffering'," Rouge gulped, nervously.

"That's one of the reasons why I hold no animosity toward God before me for

killing my friends and family," Ranma said, somewhat sad, "Sure, it hurts, but

what am I to complain? When you realize He was just as kind as Urd is now. In my

existence, no one had to suffer 'real suffering' because our kind God removed us

from ever having to experience it. Of course, we never knew how good we had it

until I crossed that threshold and found out about it,"

"Oh man," Rogue commented, "Ah never thought of it like tha' before,"

"I know," Ranma smirked, "Finding out the truth about what you believe in

really messes with your mind. That's why I asked in the beginning if you wanted

to hear some of the stuff I could tell ya,"

Everyone was so stunned at what they heard.

"The problem with how you guys think is that you don't understand everything,

and it makes you worried," Ranma said, "It's like you guys believing you have

your own destiny. I've got bad news, you can't. If you believe otherwise, that's

your prerogative, and you'll be in for just as big a shock when you find out the

truth as I did the first time around,"

"O-our destiny can't be altered?" Psylocke asked.

"Not unless God decides otherwise, no," Ranma said, "Humanity has no

understanding of the bigger scope of things. Luckily, they use religion to wipe

away those things they don't understand. 'I don't understand, it must be God's

will',"

"Care to elaborate?" Nightcrawler asked.

"A long time ago, people didn't understand who they were or why they existed.

God, being kind, explained it to them. 'Hello, I'm God, I created you.'. 'Ah,

thanks for telling us. Now we feel better.' And so, religion was born. Here's

the problem, only the people that were their first-hand understood best.

Unfortunately, what they experienced was still open to their interpretation. As

time passed, understanding changed. Why? Because every succeeding generation

after them were told about what happened so it was all up to their

interpretation. And interpretation of an interpretation and so on. For instance,

Asuka and I personally know God. She's a woman with white hair with a really hot

body,"

"Ranma!" Asuka said.

"She does," Ranma said.

The crew all looked at one another.

"Now, let's accept that as the truth, okay?" Ranma told everyone, "How would

you picture God now? Guess what, your vision of her will never compare to my

vision of her, because I was personally there so my interpretation is more

accurate, even if it is an interpretation at best. You weren't there. That's

kinda like how religion is, only the people there knew the truth best,"

"Then how do you know what you know is the truth?" Nightcrawler asked,

"Afterall, what you know is also open to your interpretation. It may be more

accurate than our interpretation of your interpretation, but it is an

interpretation nonetheless,"

"No, it isn't," Ranma grinned, "I know because I know. Unlike being there,

being God makes you all-knowing,"

"But you claim you forgot a lot of the stuff you knew," Beast said, "How can

you know you were all-knowing when there could've been a chance you never knew

it to begin with. Maybe you thought you forgot something you never knew,"

Ranma sighed, "See, this is why I don't explain stuff to people, because lots

of stuff is beyond their comprehension and they would have trouble accepting it

as truth. When you're God, your Will is your power. Your Will can do any and

everything. As God, I can Will myself to know everything. Of course, I never

Willed myself to remember everything. Why the heck would I wanna know so much

crap anyway? It'd probably give me nightmares. At one point in time, I knew

everything there is. And as time goes on and I forget, I can simply Will myself

to remember or suddenly know it again,"

"Your Will, huh?" Beast said, "Isn't Will limited to the capacity of the

person capable of doing the Willing? Some people are better at Willing than

others.

"So what?" Ranma shrugged, "You can Will your self to be able to Will beyond

your original capacity. It's similar to a genie in a lamp giving you one wish,

ANY wish. What do you do with it? Ask for an infinite wishes. It works along the

same lines,"

"But what if you make the wrong first wish?" Beast asked.

"It's just an analogy," Ranma said, somewhat annoyed, "Fine, picture it as a

genie in a bottle that'll give you one wish...and that one wish will never

disappear until you've made the wish for an infinite wishes,"

"But wouldn't your first wish be an infinite wishes then?" Beast asked.

Ranma sounded more annoyed, "It's a goddamn analogy. The Will you think about

is different from the Will I know. Your understanding of Will is limited to what

you understand. Unfortunately, it's beyond your comprehension. It all leads back

to your inability to comprehend stuff. Your mind is limited on what you can

understand. Only when you get pass that limitation would you start to

understand,"

Beast and everyone was silent. Perhaps they did have trouble understanding.

"Here's the perfect analogy that should help," Ranma said, "You know there are

certain Laws to the universe, right? I'm not talking about getting arrested for

breaking the law kinda Law,"

"Like the Theory of Relativity and the principalities of Energy Conservation

and such?" Beast asked.

"Ah, so this world does have those kinda things as well. Yeah, those kinda

things, even if they're all wrong," Ranma said, "It's like trying to explain

something like that to a dog. Something like that is beyond the dog's

comprehension. That's similar to how it's kinda like for me explaining that to

you,"

"So we're dogs, huh?" Asuka smirked.

"Motherfucker, how hard do you hafta make this on me?" Ranma shouted, "Fine,

it's like trying to explain the Theory of Relativity to a one-celled organism

and getting it to understand it. That's how it is in terms of understanding how

things work. You guys are the one-celled organism, and understanding of how

things work is the Theory of Relativity. Me trying to explaining how things are

is like that in terms of comprehension, y'get it?"

"We understand," Beast said. After a moment, "Just curious, you mentioned

something about how something like the Theory of Relativity and how energy

conservation works is all wrong? Can you elaborate on that?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nope. Not gonna explain it,"

"Because it's beyond our comprehension?" Beast asked.

"Yep," Ranma said, "If I you understood it, you'll realize the Laws of Physics

is complete bullshit,"

"I-it is?" Beast said, "And here I thought the human race got a pretty good

grasp on it,"

Ranma burst out laughing, "Sorry, but they don't. Once again, the level of

comprehension. You guys still believe energy is constant in the universe,"

"Energy isn't constant?" Beast's eyes widened.

"Nope," Ranma smiled.

"But-" Beast began to say.

"It's just the way it is," Ranma said, "Don't bother questioning it because

you won't understand it. All the stuff you think you know...it's all bullshit to

an extent. I don't really remember, I kinda forgot anyway,"

Beast seemed disappointed. He had been really interested in talking with Ranma

about such stuff.

"This stuff's really interesting," Psylocke said, "The way you explain things

makes everything really easy to understand, to an extent that is,"

"Thanks," Ranma smiled, "I've explained this stuff countless times to the best

of my abilities to Asuka and my friends so I got used to it,"

Everyone turned to look at Asuka.

"You understand, like, the universe as Ranma understands it?" Beast asked.

Maybe he could ask her more about the Laws of Physics and how they were wrong to

an extent.

Asuka gave a shy smile, "Me? Not really. I learned long ago to just take

everything as a given and stop questioning how stuff was possible. After a

while, I realized, frankly, I don't wanna try and understand things they way

they really are anymore,"

Ranma chuckled, "By then, the term 'ignorance is bliss' really comes to mind,"

Everyone was silent.

"Man, what the heck were we talking about initially before I started talking

about all of this crap anyway?" Ranma asked, "I kinda got way off the subject.

Oh yeah, you were talking about if God is kind. The answer is 'yes, she's

kind',"

"Actually, we were talking to Thor about how the two of you seem to know each

other," Psylocke corrected.

Thor, whom had been silent until now, said, "I mentioned to them how I'm aware

that you used to be God,"

Ranma shrugged, "Don't worry. No need to try and convince them who I am. Not

many people believe it anyway,"

"Can y'blame us?" Logan smirked, "You used t'be God, huh? And not just any

god, but The God, it seems, th'ultimate level, th'absolute top. From my

perspective, it's kinda hard bein' convinced, what with some of the crazy things

y'do,"

Ranma shrugged, "It don't bother me whether or not you or anyone else believes

me,"

"I must say, it is kind of hard not believing you now, considering Thor here

seems to confirm some of the things you mentioned about you that you mentioned

when you first arrived," Beast said, "Like your claim to having been a previous

God,"

"Ah, so you'd rather believe him first before believing me, huh?" Ranma

smiled.

"Yeah," Logan said flatly, "I'd rather believe lots of people before believing

you and your crazy initial claims. Frankly, even with Thor confirming some of

your claims, I still don't believe you,"

"Good, I wouldn't want it any other way," Ranma smiled.

"If you're so powerful, how come you need us to help you out?" Psylocke asked,

"Why don't you just use your power to Will yourself an engine,"

"Because I don't care to use my powers," Ranma said.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because, I used to be human, just like Asuka here," Ranma jerked a thumb

toward her, "Not using my powers at least reminds me that I'm still human in

some way even though I'm not. I may have powers that exceed comprehension, but I

would still consider myself human in some way or another. Heck, if possible, I

would love to be stripped of my powers and returned to the human I used to be,"

Everyone was silent once again.

"Unfortunately, that'll never be the case," Ranma shrugged, "My powers are

permanent. I can't get ridda it even if I wanted to,"

"What, if you can't Will it away?" Beast suggested.

"Nope, you need the power in order to have the power to do something like

that," Ranma said, "I've tried. It doesn't work. It's kinda like making a wish

to have no wishes. You still need the wish to make such a wish. It's the best

analogy I can think of but it isn't all that clear,"

"Sounds complicated," Beast stated.

"It is," Ranma stated, "I don't really care to go into any more detail about

it than I've already have. Actually, I think that's enough explaining for now. I

know you guys will have problems believing what I say, but it doesn't bother me

if you believe me to having been God or not so let's talk about something else,"

"Like what?" Beast asked.

Ranma smirked.

"Like when are we gonna leave for Antarctica? We've now got ourselves a plane,

right?"

Ranma and Asuka sat next together as they sat in the cabin of the Quinjet, the

Avengers' plane that they had let the X-Men borrow for the time being.

Nightcrawler was in the cabin with them. Beast was flying the plane, him

familiar with the controls since he used to be an Avenger back then. At the

moment, plane was heading south at close to Mach 3.

"I like this more," Ranma smiled.

"Like what more?" Asuka asked.

"The small strike team," Ranma said, "It's only the two of us and two X-Men

with us. This is a four-person strike team. I like small groups better than

larger ones, less people around to mess things up,"

"I prefer to say otherwise," Nightcrawler said, "With more people around,

there's more people around to help out with the situation at hand should things

turn ugly,"

Ranma smirked, "You've got a point there,"

"How come you specifically requested that I come along with you to

Antarctica?" Nightcrawler asked curiously, "I'm not too sure how useful I can

be,"

Ranma said, "It doesn't matter,"

"Gee, thanks," Nightcrawler smirked.

Ranma chuckled, "Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I was just curious as to how

it would be like to work along side you. That's all,"

Nightcrawler said, "We've worked along side each other already, like when we

were in the Philippines and after the Blackbird when down by The Vault,"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean we've actually worked together," Ranma

said, "You usually just hang around in the background and such. I'm interested

in seeing what you're capable of,"

Nightcrawler said, "Well, I appreciate the opportunity and all so I'll try and

not disappointed you,"

Ranma said, "Hey, I hope you aren't acting all courteous to me all of sudden

after having found out I used to be God. I wanna be treated no differently than

a regular person,"

Nightcrawler said, "Well, if you put yourself in my shoes, it's kind of hard

to figure out how to react. I'm still in a state of disbelief about what I

heard, that you used to be God,"

Ranma said, "Actually, that's probably another good reason why I like there

being little people on this mission, less people giving me the third degree

asking a bunch God-related questions,"

"What, you don't like talking about it?" Nightcrawler asked.

Ranma shrugged, "Not entirely. It gets frustrating from time to time. People

wanna try and understand and keep asking questions and such in hopes of

understanding, but the more questions the ask, the more of those questions I

answer, the more confused they get,"

"I agree," Asuka said to Nightcrawler, "We've tried figuring out back on our

world and we're now more confused about how the world works than before tried to

tell us what he knows. It's best to just take everything with a grain of salt,"

"Well, I'm not too sure how useful I can be, what with the fact that I can't

teleport you," Nightcrawler commented.

Ranma said, "Don't' worry about it. I don't think I need to worry about stuff

like being transported anywhere. I'm just hoping there's a change in scenery

with you around. Perhaps the X-Men can succeed for a change,"

"What do you mean by that?" Nightcrawler asked.

"So far, the X-Men are batting zero in my book," Ranma chuckled, curling his

index finger to touch his thumb for emphasis on the 'zero', "Philippines for the

vibranium? Failed. Madripoor for the adamantium? Failed. Kaselin Air Base for

the Molecular Rearranger? Failed even before we made it there. So far, the X-

Men's batting zero. Of course, that's with a full group. Maybe with a small

group, things might turn out differently,"

"Hopefully, that will change when we make it to Melroy in Antarctica,"

Nightcrawler said.

Ranma said, "Hopefully,"

Nightcrawler regarded him intently, "You used to be God. As in, like, the

utmost omnipotent entity that could possibly exist?"

Ranma shrugged, "Yep,"

"So tell me, what faith is correct?" Nightcrawler asked, "Christianity?

Catholicism? Buddism? What?"

"None really," Ranma chuckled, "Religion is nothing more than an invisible

means of support. It's correct that there's this belief of a higher being, but

that's basically it. It doesn't understand much more beyond that. Frankly, I

don't wanna deal with religion. I'm a walking contradiction,"

"You can say that again," Nightcrawler said.

Ranma smirked.

"Um, sorry, it slipped," Nightcrawler felt embarrassed, "But you've got to

know where I'm coming from. You've done some, well, unethical things. I figure

God would be, well, ethical,"

Ranma chuckled, "That's one of the reasons why I don't really care to have

people know who I am or was. It shatters their beliefs. People need something to

believe it. If it's some invisible force that doesn't exist, let it be,"

Nightcrawler said, "You don't care to have followers or such?"

"Right, people praying to me, that'll be the day," Ranma laughed aloud, "No

thanks. I don't want people to know about me. If they did, people would come

flocking to me asking me to help them out and such,"

"If you're God, you should have the ability to do whatever you want,"

Nightcrawler said.

"I do," Ranma said, "But that doesn't obligate me to cure world hunger or make

world peace. Even if those aspects like world hunger and war were removed, other

crap would come about to take its place. There's always going to be crap around

for people to complain about. I've learned to deal with it,"

Nightcrawler said, "It sounds like you're cynical about how everything is,"

Ranma shrugged, "More or less. People are selfish. They always find something

to complain about and want. Okay, what if I or Urd remove 'selfishness'? Then

something else would become a problem, like 'selflessness'. Of course, people

wouldn't understand because it's beyond their comprehension. People claim

'greed' is usually a good cause of evil in the world. Well, little do they know

that 'altruism' can cause a whole lot worse kinda evil. I'm not gonna get into

detail about it,"

"Why not?" Nightcrawler asked.

Ranma started getting impatient, "Because it's beyond your comprehension.

Don't go around thinking that you might be that one person that would figure it

out because you're not. Sorry, as genuinely as you are about understanding it,

you're not going to understand it so just let it go. Like I mentioned before,

the more questions I try to answer, the more you're confused you're gonna get

and the less you'll realize you understand about how things works,"

At that moment, Beast entered the cabin, having set the plane on auto-pilot.

"Ranma, I just received a message from the Avengers headquarters," Beast said.

"What did they say?" Nightcrawler asked curiously.

"A base located in Miami is being attacked this very moment," Beast said,

"We're very close by and will by passing by that area shortly,"

The plane was heading south along the east coast of America where it was

expected to cross over the Gulf of Mexico from southern most tip of Florida and

over to South America where it would continue south all the way to the Straight

of Magellan where it would cross over the ocean to Antarctica.

"Interesting," Ranma said.

"What do you want to do?" Beast asked Nightcrawler.

Ranma looked at Nightcrawler, "Oh, so you're the leader of this team, huh? I

was kinda curious as to who would lead cause I'm pretty sure none of you guys

want me as a leader,"

"What's our ETA?" Nightcrawler ignored the Ranma's comment.

Little did Ranma know that Nightcrawler used to lead a team called Excalibur,

a European branch of the X-Men, for years before coming back to join the X-Men.

He had leadership skills every bit as good as Cyclops. Of course, considering

Cyclops a good leader was hard to determine based on what Ranma had seen him do

so far. The missions Cyclops had been leading had all turned out horrible due to

factors beyond his control.

"We're around ten minutes out from Miami," Beast answered.

Nightcrawler headed for the cockpit, "Ranma, it seems like the vibranium's

going to have to wait. We're going to be making a stop in Miami to investigate,"

Ranma sighed, a bit annoyed. When the heck was he going to be able to get his

hands on some vibranium or adamantium? Something was always coming up that

seemed to prevent him from doing so.

Ranma shrugged.

"Fine, whatever, let's make it quick,"

new stuff 8/25

"Hey, is it day or night?" Ranma asked from out of the blue.

"Why the heck are you asking that?" Asuka asked, "It's night,"

"Just curious," Ranma grinned, "It's just that I suddenly feel like time seems

to have vanished. I just noticed there's less and less a sense of 'setting' as

time passes on,"

Asuka scratched her head, "What are you talking about? The sun has set about

over an hour ago,"

"Nevermind," Ranma said.

Beast and Nightcrawler entered the cabin as the plane hovered down and landed

on the ground on the shoreline that lined the coast of Florida. They had landed

in a private beach of a luxurious summer home. The family that was around there

just stared up at the giant plane that had hovered down and landed on their

property.

The group was now in Miami, basically in the heart of where the attack had

occurred.

"We're here," Beast stated.

Ranma and the group looked around as they exited the plane, stepping off and

onto the sandy beach. The group weren't worried about being spotted. This was

because the Avengers' plane was well known to the public and the Avengers were

well liked throughout. They wouldn't have all that much grief landing anywhere

in the Avengers' plane since people would automatically think they were the

Avengers. If they were in the Blackbird, that would be a whole different story.

People would most likely think it was some kind of invasion and that the

Blackbird was a scout plane.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Ranma muttered, in from the shoreline and toward

residential and business district that lined that shoreline.

From where they stood, they cause see a huge portion of all of Miami

powerless. If Miami looked like a sea of lights, the lights that were out

stretched inland in a triangular fashion for as far as the eye could see.

"This looks bad," Nightcrawler stated, "It looks like someone used that EMP

generator. Look at all those buildings and houses that have been struck,"

"The amount of electronics destroyed must amount to millions in damages,"

Beast said sadly, "It seems like the EMP generator weapon is fully functional,"

"What happened?" Ranma asked.

"It's pretty good to assume that the EMP generator stolen from Lockheed Martin

earlier today had just been tested out here," Beast gestured, "See all those

buildings and houses stretching inland like a triangle from where we are

standing? Those are all the structures that was caught in the EMP burst. The

buildings you see that don't have lights on, all their electronics have been

destroyed. All the electronics from here, stretching back fifteen miles inland,

and at a ninety degrees spread, have been destroyed and will need to be

replaced. They can't even be fixed since getting destroyed by the EMP generator

made them unsalvageable,"

Ranma whistled, "Wow. Does that mean all the area with no lights on are

basically powerless?"

Beast nodded, "Yes, they've basically been brought all the way back into the

Stone Age, before electricity,"

"What, does the EMP do something like shift things to other timelines?" Ranma

asked.

Beast turned toward Ranma, "You really don't pay much attention, do you?

Captain America explained how the EMP generator works. It figuratively sends

whatever is caught in its EMP burst back into the Stone Age, not literally. The

area in now without any form of electronics or electricity so it's basically

like that of the Stone Age,"

"Ah," Ranma said.

Beast looked toward the family and noticed one of them approaching the group.

He was an older man, most likely the father figure of that family.

"You guys are the Avengers, right?" the man asked, recognizing the Avengers'

plane, "You're here to help us out, right?"

Beast said, "We'll try and help out. What happened here?"

The man said, "I don't really know. I saw about a dozen giant robots flying in

from the horizon over the water. It appeared out of nowhere and flew and

actually landed on, basically, right where you guys landed,"

The group looked at one another. That gave them a valuable clue. They would be

expecting a giant robot to be attacking.

"How big is this robot?" Beast asked, "What does it look like?"

The man thought for a moment, "It looked to over a hundred feet tall. It

looked like...what were those things called again..."

"Sentinels?" Beast asked.

"Yeah, that's it," the man said.

Beast and Nightcrawler looked at one another.

"What's 'Sentinels'?" Ranma asked curiously, wondering if Sentinels in this

world was basically a boomer.

Beast said, "They're giant humanoid robots. We've fought them before countless

times. They're designed by Shaw Industries where the government goes out and

buys them. Sentinels are meant to seek out and destroy mutants,"

"Really?" Ranma asked, "Jeez, it sounds like the US Government is pretty evil

to do something like that, buying such weapons,"

Beast said, "Actually, it was created by a person named Trask, but the

government later took over his works after he died, killed by his own creation

actually. We're not all that keen on what the government does, that's for sure.

They fear what they don't understand,"

Ranma said, "Well, if these sentinels are so bad, why not destroy the company

that makes 'em, Shaw Industries?"

Beast said, "Your way of thinking is very amusing, much like the way Logan

thinks. We're branded as outlaws, but it doesn't mean we are outlaws. It goes

against our sense of ethics. It's like us being playing vigilante. It's not what

X-Men were founded for,"

Ranma shrugged, "Okay. The way I think of it is that it's better to do a

little evil now instead of having to deal with a greater one later on. It's

better to be bad when it's convenient,"

"Unfortunately, we don't think in the same way as you," Beast stated, "We want

to bridge the gap between humans and mutants and doing something like blowing up

Shaw Industries' Sentinel manufacturing ability will not help bridge said gap

one bit. It would actually widen it,"

"I guess I understand what you mean. So, are these Sentinels hard to defeat?"

Ranma asked, "You figure that if this is Apocalypse's doing, they're probably

made of adamantium, what with the fact that he stole quit a bit of that and

vibranium over the past few days,"

Beast said, "They vary in difficulty. They could be anywhere from forty to

over a hundred feet tall and pack quite a lot of firepower. Yes, they're hard to

deal with, especially when they're designed specifically to fight and kill

mutants. They use energy blasts and repulsor blasts and electrical shock and

such. And let's not mention that they're very adaptive as specifically

countering mutant abilities, like using steam against ice and speed against

power and vice versa,"

"And with Apocalypse playing a part in this, there's a very good chance we

will be facing adamantium or adamantium-laced sentinels," Nightcrawler said,

"That would make for very interesting opponents,"

Beast sighed, "It's going to be like fighting Ultron all over again,"

"Ultron?" Asuka asked curiously.

"He's a large robot, about seven feet tall, made completely of adamantium,"

Beast said, "I fought against him when I was on the Avengers. It was not an easy

task and everything we threw at him basically bounced right off his adamantium

body,"

"So how'd you guys defeat him?" Asuka asked.

"We used Savage Land vibranium," Beast answered, "We had Giantman hold him

down while Savage Land vibranium was basically waved in front of him which

destroyed the molecular bonds in the adamantium body,"

"Savage Land vibranium?" Ranma asked, scratching his head, "Is that any

different from vibranium, like the stuff we're after?"

"Vibranium is basically Savage Land vibranium with some kind of impurity,"

Beast answered, "Savage Land vibranium has this ability of destroying the

molecular bonds in any kind of metal, even adamantium while vibranium doesn't.

Savage Land vibranium can only be found in a place called Savage Land. In order

to transport that stuff, you need to encase it in stone or it'll simply destroy

all the metal that it comes within close proximity to,"

Nightcrawler said, "Hey, I just noticed something,"

Ranma smirked and was about to say something stupid, until Asuka interrupted

him.

"Don't even think of saying something stupid," she said, "Now's not the time

for jokes,"

"Fine fine," Ranma said.

"Um, anyway, we were on our way to Antarctica to get the vibranium,"

Nightcrawler said, "While we're there, we can stop by Savage Land to pick up

some Savage Land vibranium to deal with the situation at hand. If you beat an

adamantium robot back then using that technique, why wouldn't it work this time

around?"

Beast scratched his chin, "That actually sounds like a good idea. I can't help

but feel embarrassed that something like that completely slipped my mind,"

Ranma smirked, "Heh, I betcha if Ritsuko was in your shoes, she'd probably

think something like that up,"

Beast shrugged, "Hey, what can I say? I do miss a thing or two every now and

then. I can't think of everything,"

"So, where's this Savage Land place?" Ranma asked, "'Savage' makes it sound

like it's got interesting inhabitants,"

Beast said, "The place is located in among a ring of volcanic mountains in

Antarctica. It's actually located around two hundred miles south of where we're

going to now to get regular vibranium. And yes, it is a rather savage place

since dinosaurs roam that place among other creatures,"

"Cool," Ranma said.

"You don't seem surprised," Beast stated, "What, dinosaurs roam your world

freely?"

Ranma shrugged, "No, they don't. They're extinct there. Of course, I've seen

so much stuff over my life that seeing a dinosaur probably wouldn't surprise me

all that much. I have God's phone number on speed dial. I doubt anything can be

more surprising than that,"

"You mentioned that before," Nightcrawler said, "Exactly how do you call

Heaven on a phone?"

"It's beyond your comprehension," Ranma smirked.

Nightcrawler sighed. He wished Ranma would tell him more. Ranma seemed very

reluctant to tell anything about what he knew which bothered the hell out of

him. This was because there were so many things he wanted to know about.

Asuka said, "Don't bother trying to figure it out. We just take it as a given,

that we can call God on the phone. We don't know how it works, but it works,"

The man said, "Um, hello, I'm still here. Do you want me to come back later if

you're busy?"

Beast suddenly realized where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. How

the heck could he have gotten so distracted so easily?

"The sentinel you saw, was it only one or were there others?" he asked.

The man nodded, "Yeah,"

"Gee, like that helps," Ranma said, "Yes as in 'Yes, there was one' or as in

'Yes, there were several others'. Man, it's like me asking you 'What time is

it?' and you say 'Yes'. Sure, it's a reply, but it's completely useless,"

"Yes, there were others," the man said.

Beast asked, "Um, did any of them look particularly different from the others?

Did it have some kind of special looking device on it that wasn't evident on the

others?"

The man shook his head, "I wouldn't know. We ran when we saw them. You guys

arrived no more than a few minutes after they took off toward the horizon from

where they came,"

"How many did you see?" Beast asked, "Can you give a rough estimate?"

The man scratched his head, "I'm not too sure. I think there were around

ninety to a hundred of 'em,"

"N-ninety to a h-hundred?" Nightcrawler asked, eyes wide.

He and Beast looked at each other with concern.

"My God, ninety to a hundred hundred-plus feet tall sentinels? That's insane,"

Beast stated.

"What, is that a lot?" Ranma asked curiously.

"Yes!" Beast and Nightcrawler said.

"We've never fought more than around, what, fifty of them, and it was an

incredible uphill battle against them," Beast stated, "How are we to fight

against double that amount of sentinels with their armor laced with adamantium?"

Beast reached in the hollow of his belt to retrieve the communicard that he

remembered to bring along this time around, unlike last time when the Blackbird

got shot down near The Vault.

"I have to tell the others," Beast said, "This is really bad,"

"What, have you guys never fought against these kinda odds?" Ranma asked, "You

guys seem like a competent team and have seem more than your fair share of

powerful opponents,"

"We have, we have," Beast said, "But not this staggeringly overwhelming,"

Beast went about relaying what he had found out with the Avengers, confident

that they would quickly spread the news to everyone else.

Nightcrawler turned toward the man, "Um, is there anything else you can tell

us about what you saw?"

The man shook her head, "I don't think so. My family and I didn't stay around

to observe what they were up to,"

"Thanks for your help," Nightcrawler said.

"Um, you Avengers are going to solve this, right?" the man asked, "I mean,

that's what you do, right? Stop these things, right?"

Nightcrawler nodded, "Yes, that's the plan. The information you gave us will

help us out greatly. Um, you're doing this country a great deed in helping us,

um, Avengers out so greatly,"

"It's not problem," the man said, flattered, "I'm glad I could be of service,"

"Man, we're up the shit creek, huh?" Ranma smirked as the man walked away from

the group.

Nightcrawler asked, "You seem awfully amused by this sudden turn of events,"

"Kinda," Ranma said, "I like being the underdog,"

"How can you possibly be an underdog?" Asuka asked, "You have the powers of

God. You're so powerful that you can't even use your powers to make yourself the

underdog if you wanted to,"

Ranma shrugged, "True, but you're the underdogs and it kinda feels like I'm

viciously living it through you,"

"I think you mean to say 'vicariously'," Asuka said.

"Yeah, that," Ranma said.

They all turned toward Beast as he went about communicating with the Avengers.

"Yes, around a hundred of them," Beast said into the communicard, "If they're

made of adamantium, it's like fighting an army of Ultrons,"

"How come they were there?" came Captain America's voice.

"It seems like they were testing out the EMP generator that was stolen

recently," Beast stated, "Doing the math in my head, if the range was indeed

fifteen miles at a ninety degrees spread, that's over fourteen hundred square

miles of electrical components destroyed. And from what I'm currently looking

at, I wouldn't be surprised if the range is over fifteen miles because we can't

see down that far. There's power out stretching inland for as far as the eye can

see,"

"Thanks for the information," Captain America's voice emanated from the

communicard, "We'll be sure to relay it to the X-Men after we're done here,"

"'Done here'?" everyone asked.

"Nassau Coliseum down on Long Island was attacked during an event," Captain

America, "There are well over a hundred people hurt and an unknown amount dead.

Witnesses are claiming that sentinels attacked here and ran away around five

minutes before we arrived. We're here trying to help clear out the wreckage and

save the people trapped under the debris,"

"How many sentinels?" Beast asked, "It seems like this was a well-coordinated

attack. The attack on the coliseum was probably to draw the X-Men and Avengers

away from the intended attack in Florida, to test out the EMP generator,"

"Seems so," Captain America said, "Witness claim they saw around thirty

sentinels. This has me worried, that means there are probably around at least a

hundred and thirty adamantium sentinels running around. There's a chance the

group you almost encountered could be a small portion of an larger existing

adamantium sentinel army,"

"How is this possible?" Beast had to ask, "Where did Apocalypse come across

the resources to do something like this? How can he have possibly not have been

detected creating an army before now?"

Nightcrawler said, "Well, we can't worry about that now since there's more to

worry about,"

"Okay, before we cut out, I want to let you guys know that we've decided to

head to Savage Land from her to retrieve some Savage Land vibranium," Beast

stated, "Against something like this-"

"That's a brilliant idea," Captain America jumped in, "to use the Savage Land

vibranium to destroy the molecular bonds of the adamantium,"

Beast smirked, "That's correct,"

"Good luck," Captain America said, "I guess we'll be hearing from you guys

soon enough. Something like this will be an invaluable asset against adamantium

sentinels, that's for sure,"

Beast put the communicard back in the hollow of his belt and turned toward the

group.

"It seems like there are more sentinels than we expected," Beast said.

"We've heard," Nightcrawler said, "It seems like our getting the Savage Land

vibranium is now a necessity,"

Savage Land is an artificially created tropical forest and was located among a

ring of volcanic mountains. It was created by Nuwali, an alien race, as a

wildlife preserve stocked with fauna and flora. Advanced technological devices

constructed deep within the cavers that located around Savage Land helped give

it a tropical climate despite the area being located in the cold, harsh region

of Antarctica. The volcanic activities surrounding the area helped give it its

tropical environment. Savage Land was created well before the age of dinosaurs.

Over the course of millions and millions of years, creatures and plant-life

flourished in that area long after they had became extinct everywhere else. This

area was the only place where exotic creatures could be found, creatures like

Saurons, a race of lizardmen, and Neanderthals, and dinosaurs.

The plane landed in the middle of the village of Fallen People which was

located within Savage Land. The village seemed made up mostly of leather huts

and such, a typical village one would expect to see if they showed up at a

village the pre-dated the discovery of electricity.

"You sure about this?" Ranma asked Beast as he and the others stepped off the

plane.

Beast nodded, "Yes,"

They looked around and saw several dozen of the village's inhabitants, a

combination of hide-wearing humans and, what could be best described as,

lizardmen.

"This place seems like it existed in the Stone Age," Ranma commented, "Except

for the fact there are lizardmen about,"

"This village is basically one from then, figuratively speaking," Beast

answered, "They don't use electricity and such and use weapons like stone arrows

and stone spears,"

Ranma felt Asuka nervously stand closer to him and smiled as he put and arm

around her, "Nothing to worry about,"

"Um, o-okay," she said, feeling a bit more relaxed. She hated to admit it, but

she knew that the closer she was to Ranma, the less her fears evaporated. Heck,

if she held Ranma's hand, she was pretty sure he could lead her through The

Valley of Death if need be.

"Interesting place," Ranma said, "Where are the dinosaurs? I wanna see a

Tyrannosaurus Rex,"

"They don't attack the village that often," Beast said.

"Only when superheroes show up?" Ranma smirked.

Beast snickered. Perhaps Ranma had a point.

"You seem to know a lot about this place," Asuka commented, a bit comfortable

about that.

Beast nodded, "The X-Men have visited this place on several occasions. We've

come to the aide of Savage Land a few times before,"

"So the people here know you?" Asuka asked.

"Yes, we're friends with Ka-Zar, the leader of this village," Beast stated.

Ranma nudged at Nightcrawler, "Hey, aren't you going to say anything and take

part in this conversation? You're sinking into the background again,"

"What?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Nevermind," Ranma shrugged, turning back to Beast, "Who's this Ka-Zar guy?"

"You'll see," Beast said, "He'll be showing up in a bit, once word gets back

to him of our arrival,"

They hung around for a minute or so before they caught sight of a muscular

shirtless man with long blond hair and what looked like fur loincloth stepping

forward from the group of villagers standing about. Walking next to him was a

beautiful woman with long flowing mane of blond hair sporting what looked very

much like a leopard-skinned leotard. Walking by his other side side was this

giant sabertooth tiger. It looks very much like an orange tiger with two massive

fangs.

"Fucking cat," Ranma didn't think as he picked up a rock and threw it threw it

toward the sabertooth tiger. The tiger skillfully dodged it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Beast shouted at Ranma, "You just tried

throwing a rock at Zabu! That's Ka-Zar's animal companion!"

The man and animal stopped approaching, wondering why Ranma had done what he

had done.

"I don't like cats," Ranma muttered in a serious voice, "I've had a bad

experience with 'em,"

Beast sighed as he turned his attention toward the man and walked up to meet

him halfway and started talking to him.

"You didn't have to do that you know," Nightcrawler stated, "Sorry, I couldn't

help it. I don't like cats,"

Nightcrawler scratched his head. How was he to react to something like that.

The former God didn't like cats. If that was the case, why would cats exist

then? He could've used his powers to remove cats from existence.

"Don't even think of asking why," Ranma said.

"Oh, because it's beyond my comprehension, right?" Nightcrawler asked.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Actually, not really. It's just so freaking stupid

that you wouldn't believe me if I told you. It's something I don't care to talk

about,"

"Ranma's scared of cats," Asuka smirked.

"Hey!" Ranma turned toward Asuka as if embarrassed, "I'm not scared of cats. I

used to be scared of 'em, but not anymore,"

Nightcrawler listened and realized that the more he hung around, the more his

initial perception of what God was was being ripped apart. This world's former

God was scared of cats? What next, that he used to turn into a girl when

splashed with cold water? Or perhaps he used to have a bunch of friends that

turned into animals? That would be a riot.

Ranma shrugged, "Yeah, I used to be scared of cats, so what. I had a bad

experience,"

"What, did one bite you? We're talking about house cats, right?" Nightcrawler

said.

"I had a bad experience," Ranma said again.

"A lion and tiger are part of the cat family," Nightcrawler said, "Did one of

those animals attack you before you became God?"

"I had a bad experience," Ranma said again.

Asuka said, "No one knows why. He never told us. Only Akane and Shinji seem to

know about it and neither of them will tell us. All we know is that he can go

into this weird Neko-ken stance when exposed to cats too long,"

"Neko-ken stance?" Nightcrawler's curiosity was piqued, "What's that?"

"The ultimate fighting stance," Asuka said, "Of course, to attain it, it seems

Ranma paid quite a bit for it,"

Ranma said, "Gee, tell him everything why dontcha? And for your information,

that was, what, like five years ago? I've long cured my fear of cats,"

"Does that mean you can't use that Neko-ken stance anymore?" Asuka asked,

realizing that.

Ranma laughed, "Right, like I even need to use the Neko-ken EVER at this point

in my life. I'm a tad bit on the powerful side,"

"You still haven't mentioned if you can use the Neko-ken or not," Asuka

stated, "That's something that probably none of us realized to ask you,"

Ranma said, "Yes, I can consciously go into the Neko-ken, but why the hell

would I wanna go and do that? That's beyond overkill,"

"What is this Neko-ken?" Nightcrawler asked.

"It's just a fighting stance," Ranma said, "Back then it's basically me losing

complete control and just going crazy,"

Nightcrawler said, "That sounds very much like Logan's Berserker Rage,"

"Berserker Rage?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Nightcrawler said, "Logan goes into that Berserker Rage every time he

spars against you. What, you haven't noticed?"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Um, not really. I noticed he fights a bit more

ferocious than usual now ever since I told him he can't really hurt me, but it's

nothing that made me believe he was doing anything special,"

Nightcrawler said, "Man, that's unbelievable. I can't believe you didn't even

notice if Logan goes into his Berserker Rage or not,"

"There's stuff about me even I don't know about myself or what I'm capable

of," Ranma said, "I've forgotten more stuff than people could possibly

remember,"

"Like the difference between the word 'vicariously' and 'viciously'?" Asuka

smirked.

"Oh, we have a jokester here," Ranma said, "How come it seems I can't make

jokes but it seems like Asuka here can?"

"All kidding aside," Nightcrawler said, "Getting back onto the subject, you

really do need to act on the side of caution. Throwing a rock at a sabertooth

tiger is not something normal people would do,"

Ranma shrugged, "I ain't all that normal,"

Asuka smirked. That was for sure.

"What I mean is that we are here to collect some Savage Land vibranium,"

Nightcrawler stated, "You throwing rocks at this Ka-Zar's animal companion

doesn't help with convincing the man to let us have some,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma said. He looked over toward the group Beast

was talking to, "So, who's Beast talking to?"

"That's Ka-Zar," Nightcrawler answered, "He's the leader of this village and a

friend of the X-Men. He's the person to ask on finding and getting some Savage

Land vibranium,"

He noticed the beautiful woman standing next to Ka-Zar, "Hey, who's hot

chick?"

"Ranma," Asuka said, annoyed.

"That's Shanna, his wife. You know, much like the way Jean is Cyclops' wife,"

Nightcrawler said, "Of course, I don't think that seems to bother you any,"

"His wife, huh?" Ranma said.

"Ranma," Asuka said, "Don't you go do anything stupid,"

Ranma said, "What, you jealous?"

"Hmph!" Asuka turned away in annoyance.

The three of them hung back and watched as Beast and the man named Ka-Zar

talked to one another.

"We need your help," Beast got straight to the point, "We're seeking the

vibranium that can be found only here in Savage Land,"

"This sounds serious," Ka-Zar stated, his forehead creasing.

"Can you tell us where we can find some?" Beast asked.

Ka-Zar nodded, "Yes, there's the remains of an AIM mining operation nearby,"

AIM was short for Advanced Idea Mechanics, a splinter group of the terrorist

group known as Hydra. AIM sold weapons to anyone that had the financial means of

buying them. This group did many illegal activities, mining Savage Land for its

vibranium to sell to buyers being one of them. Ka-Zar was aware of one of their

abandoned mines nearby.

The mine was abandoned when it had been set up too close to Magneto's hidden

base. Savage Land had been known to have several secret bases that belong to

various supervillains of the world, Magneto's base being one of them.

"The base is located around a mile north of our location," Ka-Zar stated,

"It's abandoned,"

"An AIM mine abandoned?" Beast asked, "How come?"

"Not too sure," Ka-Zar stated, "I think Magneto killed them off. But then

again it could be someone else since so many supervillains set up their secret

bases around here,"

"Can you show us the way?" Beast asked.

"I'd be glad to," Ka-Zar said.

Together, they all walked over to where Ranma and Nightcrawler and Asuka were.

As they approached him, Beast noticed Ranma glaring toward the sabertooth tiger

that seemed to hang right by Ka-Zar's side.

"Ka-Zar here knows where we can get some vibranium," Beast said, "He can show

us the way,"

Ranma crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Is the cat staying or coming

along?"

"Do you have something against my friend?" Ka-Zar regarded Ranma for a moment.

"Yes," Ranma said, "He's a cat. I don't like cats,"

Zabu, the sabertooth tiger growled toward Ranma.

"Ranma, will you lighten up?" Asuka said, "Listen to yourself. You sound likes

some kind of racist,"

"Hmph," Ranma muttered, letting out an annoyed breath. Perhaps he was being a

bit unreasonable. That sabertooth tiger did nothing wrong to him, except be born

in the cat family that is.

Beast cleared his throat, "This is Ka-Zar. This woman's Shanna, his wife. And

that's his animal companion, Zabu,"

As they were introducing each other to Ranma and Asuka, someone came rushing

up to the group. It was a young looking man with short brown hair wearing

nothing more than a loin cloth.

Ranma covered Asuka's eyes, "You're too young to see stuff like that,"

Asuka shoved Ranma's hands away, "Fool, I'm not some little girl,"

"I have urgent news," the man said to Ka-Zar, "I was by the abandoned mine and

saw this giant green behemoth wrecking havoc around the entrance,"

Beast and the others looked at one another.

"Who is this giant green behemoth you speak of?" Ka-Zar asked.

The man thought for a moment, "I am not too sure. I remember from before. He

was here once before. I don't remember what he was called,"

"The Hulk?" Ka-Zar asked.

The man said, "Yes, that is the name,"

"The Hulk? What's he doing here?" Ka-Zar said, "What was he doing?"

"I'm not too sure," the man said, "I think he was trying to cause the mine to

cave in on itself as well as destroying all the equipment found around the

mine,"

"What?" Beast's eyes widened.

Ka-Zar scratched his chin, visibly concerned, "If that's the case, we must go

investigate. I must exercise caution with a matter like this,"

"The equipment to mine out the vibranium...it wouldn't happen to be located in

the mine, would it?" Nightcrawler asked.

Ka-Zar nodded, "I assume it would still be in there. We never touched any of

them when we saw all those dead AIM bodies. All we did was retrieve the bodies

and give them proper burials,"

Nightcrawler said, "I don't know what's going on but we have to respond

immediately! He's trying to cave-in the mine. If that happens, we won't be able

to get the vibranium and the equipment could be destroyed in the cave-in. We

have to hurry up and find out what's going on and fast!"

Ranma said, "Actually, if it's some mine in some side of a mountain that gets

caved-in, I can easily make a new entrance through it. I did create a tunnel

through the mountain during the incident at The Vault afterall,"

"That may be true, but we have to think about the mining equipment that will

be destroyed in the cave-in," Beast stated, "Nightcrawler's got a point. If the

equipment gets destroyed in the cave-in, we won't be able to mine out the

vibranium. Ceramic equipment is required to mine out Savage Land vibranium

because regular metallic equipment would be useless. Afterall, vibranium

destroys the molecular bonds in metal,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "Well, I guess we better get going,"

"That we must," Beast said, "We have to stop the Hulk,"

"Say, is this the Hulk guy you've mentioned, the one that gets stronger as he

gets angrier?" Ranma asked.

Beast nodded, "Yes. You met his cousin, She-Hulk, earlier,"

Ranma smirked, "Cool. I wonder how powerful this guy is,"

Nightcrawler said, "Well, there could be a chance you're going to find out,"

"Awesome,"

Ranma and the others arrive at the mine in under ten minutes, the thick jungle

and precarious rocky side of the mountain making the group take longer than

usual to travel a mile on foot.

Ka-Zar was with the group, his wife, Shanna, and his animal companion, Zabu,

had been told to stay behind, much to Shanna's protest. However, even though she

was a highly skilled warrior capable of taking care of herself, it didn't take

much convincing for Ka-Zar to explain to Shanna that her safety would definitely

be at risk. The sabertooth tiger stayed behind based on Ranma's keen dislike of

cats.

Arriving at the mine, Beast and Nightcrawler instantly recognized that it was

the Hulk. He was a giant of a man, his stature downright frightening, even

making Ranma do a double-take. Much like She-Hulk, he had green skin and green

hair. He stood around ten feet tall and looked to weigh around half a ton of

pure well-defined musculature that made Ranma wonder how muscles could possibly

get so large in the first place.

"Is that that Hulk guy?" Ranma jerked a thumb toward the giant unaware of

their presence. They were observing him from behind a nearby rock as he went

about smashing things, causing the entrance to the mine to collapse in on itself

very slowly.

Nightcrawler nodded, "Yes, that's him, the Hulk,"

"Man, and I thought Juggernaut looked huge, this guy dwarfs him?" Ranma

whistled, "Heh, he must be really badass. You KNOW a dude is badass when he has

the word 'the' in front of his name. Man, how come my name can't have 'the' in

front of it? 'The Ranma', it sounds pretty cheesy and wicked at the same time if

you ask me,"

"Now's not the time to stop and talk, we have to stop him from caving-in the

mine," Nightcrawler said urgently. He turned toward Ka-Zar, "Thanks for showing

us the way here, your help is greatly appreciated,"

"Are you sure you don't want my help?" Ka-Zar asked.

"Yes," Nightcrawler said, "I know you're the protector of Savage Land, but we

can handle it from here,"

Ka-Zar glanced toward the Hulk, regarding him for a moment. The Hulk was

someone he definitely he didn't want to mess with. As much as he wanted to help,

he truly believed he could be of any help in a situation like this.

"I pray for your safe return," Ka-Zar said, turning around and quickly heading

off.

"We have to stop the Hulk," Beast said, "I don't know what's going on or why

he's trying to destroy the mine, but we have to stop him before it's too late,"

Ranma said, "Is he strong? I mean really strong?"

Beast nodded, "Yes, incredibly strong. He's considered a force of nature and

fights toe-to-toe with Thor,"

"That don't help me any, I beat Thor real easily," Ranma said.

"What are you getting at?" Beast asked, concerned, "We don't have the time to

discuss this and have to do something,"

Ranma said, "Gee, I hope I'm not going overboard but here goes nothing,"

He reached out and grabbed the boulder of a rock they were hiding behind,

lifting it up without any form of strain. The rock must had weighed close to 20

tons and Ranma lifted it like it weighed not heavier than a feather.

They stared in surprise as Ranma hurtled the boulder at the Hulk's back,

hitting him in the back of the head, sending him flying through the air along

with the boulder where he got crushed between thrown projectile and the step

side of the mountain where the mine was dug into.

"Hm, that seemed to do the trick," Ranma said, feeling a bit disappointed when

he caught sight of Hulk staggering for a bit before falling backwards onto his

back, seemingly unconscious. Several tons of debris from where he smashed into

the side of the mountain fell down and buried him alive.

"Y-you knocked out the Hulk," Beast was shocked.

"Damn, he's no better than Thor," Ranma said, "Maybe it seems like I did go

overboard,"

"Oh oh, I spoke too soon," Beast became visibly nervous.

Hulk let out this rage-filled scream as he seemed the throw off the fallen

debris with such force that some of them were sent out into orbit. Some of the

debris that randomly came shooting in their general direction, Ranma swatted

away, the group behind him unprotected if he wasn't there.

"You guys better get away from here," Ranma told them, "I don't wanna hafta

worry about protecting you while fighting the Hulk at the same time,"

"Agreed," Nightcrawler quickly said. He reached out and grabbed a hold of both

Beast and Asuka and used his special mutant powers to teleport them away from

danger.

Ranma smirked, "Wow, Nightcrawler's pretty damn useful,"

Now that the others were safe, Ranma turned his attention toward the Hulk and

regarded as the green giant looked around for the person that had attacked him

from behind.

"Little man attack Hulk from behind, now little man pay," the Hulk said,

fuming, spotting Ranma and automatically assuming that he was the only person

that could've done that.

Hulk charged straight toward Ranma, his speed somewhat surprising Ranma. He

was expecting a man that large to move relatively slow, like Juggernaut.

However, that didn't seem to be the case, covering the short distance between

himself and Ranma within a fraction of a second.

To Ranma's surprise, Hulk didn't run toward him. Instead, he took a leap

toward him. The initial surprise of seeing that happen left Ranma with no time

to react, causing him to take evasive action, jumping up in the air in hopes of

landing behind the giant as he went sailing right by below him.

Ranma said a word of surprise as he felt one of Hulk's giant hands clam down

on one of his ankles, leading him to realize that he didn't leap up quick

enough. Either that or Hulk reacted quick enough to reach up and grab Ranma as

Ranma jumped straight up over him.

Hulk, holding onto one of Ranma's ankles, managed to slam Ranma down on the

ground, hard. But he instantly lost his grip on him when Ranma jammed a finger

up against a pressure point in his forearm that caused him to automatically let

go of him as he tried to slam him down on the ground again for the second time.

Ranma twisted in the air and landed nearby, a smirk on his face. He dusted

some debris from his clothes, seemingly unscathed, "You're a quick one, aren't

ya? I didn't expect you to grab me like that,"

The giant leapt forward toward Ranma and grabbed him with a giant hand,

wrapping his fingers around Ranma's entire upper body. Unfortunately, Ranma made

sure one of his arms didn't end up getting pinned by his side while in the

Hulk's grip because he used his free hand to press a pressure point on Hulk's

grabbing arm to cause himself to be automatically released a second time. Ranma

stood right where he was, Hulk trying to grab him a third time, resulting in a

failed attempt. And then a fourth. And then a fifth.

"Hulk angry!" the Hulk shouted furiously, angered from not being able to

grab a hold of the man standing before him. He brought both hands back and over

his head as he entwined his fingers.

"Hulk smash!" the Hulk said as he brought down his hands and slammed the

area where Ranma had been a fraction of a second before, Ranma having

sidestepped the attacked called 'the double-ax'.

Ranma reached out and wrapped both arms around one of Hulk's forearms, the

giant's forearms so large that he was barely able to interlock his fingers as he

held on.

With no effort, Ranma twisted in place, the action creating a torquing motion

on is extended arm, causing Hulk to flip toward the side where he landed on his

head, hard.

"My God, that human is fighting Hulk all by himself and winning," Ka-Zar said

in shock. He and Nightcrawler and Asuka were standing around a half a mile away,

farther up the mountain side so they would have a perfect vantage point. The

little light that was being provided by the moonlight made it fairly hard for

them to see the fight in detail.

Asuka said, "T-that Hulk guy is pretty scary. He keeps getting up,"

"Hulk's really really tough," Beast stated, "He and Thor fight against one

another and it makes for quite an interesting fight,"

"Who's tougher, Thor or Hulk?" Asuka asked curiously, "You speak of them as if

they're equal or something or close to it,"

"All in all, Thor's tougher, but there probably would be people that

disagree," Beast stated, "Those two have clashed several times with their

battles usually coming up as a draw. However, Thor has his Hammer, and no one's

ever really seen him use his Hammer to its full potential. The Hammer Thor

wields is one of the most powerful weapons in existence, at least in our world

that is,"

"Do you have any idea why Hulk's doing this?" Asuka asked, "Isn't he one of

the 'good guys'?"

Beast nodded, "For the most part, yes. But there have been times when he had

been considered 'evil', but that was because he was being...oh, THAT'S why Hulk

is doing this...he's being mind-controlled. That's got to be it. There would be

no reason why he would be doing this otherwise,"

Beast turned toward Nightcrawler to tell him that he should go tell Ranma but

Nightcrawler had already teleported away, already way ahead of him and

teleporting close enough to the fight to relay the message to Ranma. He watched

the empty space for a second, expecting Nightcrawler to reappear.

"Mind-controlled?" Asuka asked.

"He's susceptible to mind control and mind attacks, much like the way

Juggernaut and most people are," Beast nodded, "He's been mind-controlled quite

a few times,"

Asuka said, "Does that mean someone like Jean is extremely powerful? I mean

she knows telepathy, right? If she can control someone like the Hulk, would it

make her more powerful? Does that mean Jean can beat Hulk?"

She smiled. She liked that thought that a female could become so powerful.

Sure, Urd was God and no one could get any more powerful than her, but still, it

was nice to know there were other strong females.

"Told him," Nightcrawler said as he teleported.

Beast smirked. He tuned turned toward Asuka, "Yes, she can control him.

Unfortunately, the Hulk has multiple personas so she probably wouldn't be able

to control him for long. The problem is that controlling him wouldn't be of much

help because he would eventually break the control and she'd be back at square

one, except Hulk will be much angrier which is not a good thing,"

"Oh," Asuka said.

"Why isn't Ranma trying to knock the device off?" Nightcrawler asked aloud,

noticing Ranma and Hulk still fighting one another, "I definitely noticed a

mind-control device on Hulk's temples, but Ranma isn't doing anything to break

them,"

"Y-you don't think Ranma's fighting for the sake of fighting, do you?" Beast

asked Asuka, "If he knows how to defeat Hulk, why doesn't he go and do it?"

Asuka said, "Um, is Hulk good at slugging it out with someone?"

"Very," Beast stated, "He slugs it out with Thor all the time,"

Asuka scratched his head, "If Thor is more powerful than Hulk in some way, how

come it seemed like he was defeated really easily? Ranma said he hit him with

his Hammer and he went down like a sack of potatoes,"

Beast gave a meek smile, "I think that's because Ranma had the element of

surprise there. Thor was probably not expecting Ranma to catch his Hammer and

throw it back at him. He probably just stood there in shock and got hit full

force without bracing for the impact. Had he expected it and braced for it, he

probably wouldn'tve been knocked out. The Hammer is that strong a weapon, that

it can easily knock out Thor with it...provided someone could actually hold the

weapon,"

"I think Ranma wants to have a slugfest," Asuka stated, "Ranma doesn't need to

punch hard to knock anyone out so I think he's just having himself some fun

being able to fight someone that can take hits. Ryoga doesn't show around the

house that much so Ranma had no one he can fight at equal terms,"

"Ryoga?" Beast and Nightcrawler asked.

"Ryoga's Ranma's equal, at least in pure fighting," Asuka said, "He fights

just as well as Ranma in terms of pure skill and technique. But he's slower than

Ranma, but his attacks are a whole lot harder,"

Nightcrawler asked, "Is this Ryoga person a former God as well? How many

former Gods are there?"

Asuka shook his head, "No, he isn't. He's human,"

"Wait, you're telling me a human can go toe-to-toe with Ranma?" Nightcrawler

asked.

"If humans can get that powerful, it makes me wonder if mutants should be the

one's fearing humans," Beast stated.

Asuka shrugged, "I'm not too sure. Ryoga died once in some world and was

resurrected. We have no idea what world he was because he doesn't talk about it.

He keeps mentioning he has really powerful friends on that world and one is

green and one has no nose and another has black hair that defies gravity,"

"Sounds like something you see back in New York," Beast smirked.

Asuka giggled, "For Ranma and Ryoga to fight in equal terms, Ranma doesn't

allow himself to use his God-powers. Ranma's actually lost a couple times to

Ryoga,"

"Ranma's lost to him?" Beast asked in surprise.

"Ranma can't lose in essence, but there are lines that he's not allowed to

cross," Asuka stated, "When they fight, if Ranma uses certain powers to get

himself out of a jam, he loses. It's usually the same thing over and over again.

Ryoga is just about to hit Ranma with some wickedly powerful punch and Ranma

conjures his AT Field to stop it,"

"But isn't Ranma invulnerable to everything?" Beast asked, "Why would he even

need it?"

Asuka said, "He doesn't. You can set off a nuclear bomb on his face while he's

sleeping and he will probably sleep right through it. He still has human quirks.

He still has reacts with a sense of self-preservation. If he hears a loud noise

suddenly, he'll get startled. He can still get freaked out, and Ryoga sometimes

freaks him out if the fights get really intense,"

"That's very interesting," Beast said, "I would love to see such a fight one

day. It sounds epic,"

Asuka shrugged, "I don't see why not if you visit our world,"

"There's still going at it," Nightcrawler stated, figuring neither of the two

were paying much attention.

Asuka and Beast turned their attention on the fight, wondering what they had

been missing.

"So far, Ranma shoulder threw him fifteen times to the ground in the exact

same fashion," Nightcrawler stated, "I think he's purposely trying to get Hulk

infuriated,"

They watched as Ranma shoulder threw Hulk to the ground a sixteenth time.

"He's using the Perfect Shoulder Throw," Asuka smirked, "It seems like it even

works on someone like the Hulk,"

"Hulk furious!" they could hear Hulk's voice echoing in the entire

Savage Land valley. They watched as he tried to kick Ranma, only to have his the

one leg he was balancing on swept out from under him and falling down to the

ground, hard.

"That's the tenth time Ranma did a sweep kick and knocked him off his feet,"

Nightcrawler said, "It's very very obvious he's trying to infuriate the Hulk,"

They watched as Hulk tried to grab him, Ranma dashing through and under his

legs to end up facing his back, his hands clenched together, all his fingers

save for his index entwined.

"Super Ass-Poke!" they heard Ranma's voice.

Their eyes widened as they caught sight of him poke his index finger right at

the Hulk's backside, sending him arching his back as he was violated, so it

seemed.

"That's the seventh time Ranma did that," Nightcrawler muttered.

"I can't believe he did that," Asuka shook his head in disgust. Did Ranma have

NO limit to the kinds of techniques he would use? Wait, there was one, he would

not hit a guy in the testicles.

"You shouldn'tve mentioned to him that he gets stronger as he gets angrier,"

Asuka added, "It's obvious Ranma wants to see how strong Hulk can get when

properly, um, angered,"

"Wow, the Hulk looks to be in a fit of rage now," Beast said, worried. He

watched as Ranma shoulder threw the Hulk to the ground once again, further

infuriating him, "I can't believe Ranma, um, poked him in the butt,"

"So the butt is off limits in a fight against the Hulk?" Asuka asked.

"Ranma's definitely the first to do something like that," Beast stated.

Nightcrawler said, "Your friend, Ranma, is truly insane. I understand he

doesn't know who he's dealing with, but to want to anger a giant green guy is

insane. This guy can drop kick the moon, literally speaking,"

Asuka was silent.

"I think we really need to stop Ranma from angering Hulk anymore," Beast

stated, "Ranma's playing with Pandora's Box here,"

Nightcrawler teleported over to where Ranma and Hulk were.

"Ranma! What are you doing?" Nightcrawler shouted out to him from a close

but safe distance, "Just end it!"

"No," Ranma smirked.

"What?" Nightcrawler asked.

"I want to see how angry I can make him?" Ranma said, intercepting an incoming

fist, "I want to indulge myself and fight a truly worthy opponent,"

"If you anger him anymore, he's going to end up wrecking destroying the

mountain and the vibranium along with it!" Nightcrawler shouted.

Ranma shook his head, jerking a thumb behind him toward the mine entrance,

"No, I won't let that happen. I'm protecting this mine so you've got nothing to

worry about. I've gotten used to his speed so there's no way he's getting past

me to attack the mine. Besides, he seems too caught up in fighting me," He

smirked toward the Hulk, "Ain't I right Mister Jolly Green Giant?"

"I-I hope you're right," Nightcrawler said reluctantly before teleporting

away.

"What did Ranma say?" Beast asked.

"No," Nightcrawler said.

"'No'?" Beast said.

Nightcrawler nodded, "He doesn't want to listen. He seems to really want to

fight a worthy opponent and seems hell-bent on getting Hulk angry enough to

become, I guess, a decent sparring partner,"

"This is insane!" Beast said, "We are about to undergo what would most likely

be a world-change event, and Ranma's trying to pick a fight with the Hulk to

have himself a fun sparring match. I can't believe he would do something like

this,"

Asuka shrugged, "What can I say, Ranma does some insane stuff from time to

time. At least he doesn't do it in excess, which makes me glad. He's the type of

person that, if he finds out something like, say, radiation gives you special

powers, he would try and set off a nuclear device to see if radiation would give

him special powers, not that he needs it,"

Beast and Nightcrawler looked at each other nervously.

"Of course, that's pretty far-fetched," Asuka laughed, "Getting powers from

radiation,"

"Um, right," Nightcrawler said nervously, very nervously, "Now that's really

far-fetched,"

Beast and Nightcrawler made a mental to never mention anything about how

special kinds of radiation had given many super heroes their special powers.

Oddly enough, why is that? Perhaps that was something no one will ever fully

understand.

Beast said, "We better get away from here. Even though we're about a half a

mile away from the fight, I have a funny feeling we're going to need to be much

farther away to be safe,"

"Look!" Nightcrawler said, "H-h-his speed's increased! He moves like he's

Quicksilver,"

"Y-you're right," Beast was shocked.

"Quicksilver?" Asuka asked.

"A very very fast individual," Beast said, "He's probably around ten times

faster than the fastest human alive,"

"Wow, that's fast," Asuka said.

Nightcrawler and Beast looked at one another. They realized they were

witnessing something that they had never witness before. What could that mean?

Did that mean Ranma had pushed him so far into anger that his green skin started

turning red?

"Ranma is continuing to throw him to the ground," Nightcrawler gasped,

watching the fight, "It's like Ranma just upped his speed to match Hulk's. H-how

fast is Ranma?"

"Don't know," Asuka said, "He's faster than the human eye could see, that's

for sure,"

"I-I didn't know Hulk changes color and gets faster the angrier he gets,"

Beast said, "This is definitely a first. I think Ranma just made the Hulk

angrier than anyone had ever witnessed,"

"H-he's still egging him on," Nightcrawler said, "He's still throwing him to

the ground in the exact same fashion as the first shoulder throw. T-that must be

infuriating, to be thrown to the ground with the same technique over and over

again and not be able to do anything about it,"

"Arrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh!" the group was force to hold their hands to

their ears as Hulk let out this blood curdling scream of rage. To their

surprise, the ground started shaking.

"What the?" Beast looked down at the ground, wondering why it was shaking. Was

it an earthquake? Could Hulk's scream have made that happen?

At that moment, they caught a glimpse of a brilliant yellow light emanating

from the area where Ranma and Hulk were fighting.

"What the heck is that?" Beast asked.

The three of them looked over toward where Ranma and Hulk were. Nightcrawler's

and Beast's jaw dropped to the floor when they witness something they had never

seen before.

Hulk was standing with his legs spread wide apart, both hands held forward in

front of him, palms open. What shocked them was that they realized the Hulk was

shooting a gigantic energy blast from him hands. They watched as a column-like

beam of pure energy around a mile in diameter shot from both of Hulk's extended

hands, incinerating everything in its path. Because of where they were, they

were in no danger of being caught in the blast.

The beam of energy emitted from the Hulk's hands remained constant for a good

minute, never dulling in intensity. The Hulk was glowing a brilliant gold as he

did this, as if having become pure energy himself.

The blast traveled forward, enveloping everything in its path, incinerating

everything as well, melting the top layer of ice all the way down to the earth

located below it.

When the energy blast subsided, they caught sight of Ranma standing in front

of the Hulk stark naked, his clothes having been incinerated in the blast. He

was lower in the ground, the energy blast having incinerated the ground below

him before it expanded to mile-wide diameter to engulf the mountain right behind

him.

Ranma had this looked of shock in his face. He had no idea the Hulk could do

energy blasts like that. He thought the guy was an extremely powerful brawler.

This was definitely a surprise he had not anticipated.

If he turned around to look, he would be able to see the outside of Savage

Land, the vast icy expanse of Antarctica before him.

He didn't get a chance to catch his bearing as he was suddenly punched harder

in the face than he had ever been punched in his life. He was struck with such

force that he would've easily had been blown through the mountain behind him,

had there been a mountain.

Instead, Ranma ended up sailing through the air, flying out of Savage Land.

When gravity took effect, Ranma ended up crashing on the ground ten miles out

from Savage Land, tumbling and tumbling for a good two miles before finally come

to a halt on the rocky ground that used to have a layer of ice above it.

Ranma looked up toward the dark sky as he lay on the ground. He was lying in

the middle of what looked like a half-pipe, created by the energy blast.

"Wow, that just sucked," Ranma said.

As he was about to sit upright, a gigantic foot came right down on his face,

sending him down into the ground with such destructive force that he was sent

probably a good fifty feet right into the solid ground.

It turned out that the enraged Hulk, enraged beyond belief, had jumped the

entire distance between where he was and all the way to Ranma in a single bound.

Underground, Ranma found himself angry, "Okay, now I'm getting pissed,"

He proceed to climb his way out of his hole. As he reached the surface, a

giant hand clamped down on his head, lifting him from the hole and off the

ground.

Before Ranma could dart a hand up and press the point on the Hulk's forearm

that would cause him to lose his hold on himself, Ranma was punched in the chest

with just as much destructive force as the first punch that sent him flying for

over ten miles while still holding his head.

The force caused Ranma's body to be sent flying at least five miles before

gravity brought him down where he slammed on the ground and sliding to a halt

around a mile later.

Ranma found himself looking up at the sky again. He was still on the ground,

still in the blast created half-pipe. It made him wonder just how far back the

destruction from the energy blast stretched. Judging by where he was, to

incinerate over eighteen miles of ice and terra firma and a mountain to boot,

that meant the power of the Hulk's energy projection was astronomical. Heck,

having his clothes incinerated right from his body required quite a bit of power

to get past that innate AT Field he possessed that constantly protected him.

Ranma caught sight of a green foot coming down upon him but reacted quickly

enough to roll out of the way.

Rolling to his feet, he turned his attention onto the Hulk as he was climbing

out of the small crater that had been created from his landing.

"All right, I think I'm done with you," Ranma said, realizing that he was

hearing his own voice in Japanese. It meant his headset device had been

destroyed in the blast.

Ranma dashed forward and punched Hulk in the face with a great deal of force,

similar to the amount of force he would use against someone like Ryoga. The

impact was so intense, and the angle of impacted perfect, that it sent him

flying bodily backwards back toward Savage Land in a wide arc through the air.

"Man, what a fighter," Ranma smiled happily, "That dude reminds me of Ryoga,"

Smirking, Ranma began sprinting back towards Savage Land.

"I-I never knew the Hulk h-had energy projection?" Beast had a shocked look on

his face. He and Asuka and Nightcrawler were in a state of shock, trying to

gather their thoughts.

"I think that's because Ranma made Hulk angrier than anyone had ever

witnessed," Nightcrawler said, feeling surreal.

"Man, Thor's more powerful than him?" Asuka asked, "Wow, I'd like to see how

powerful Thor is to be able to outdo that,"

Beast turned toward Asuka, "No, I take back everything. What I just saw will

probably demolish Thor. Thor had fought Hulk on several occasions, but never a

Hulk that moved that fast or used energy projection...and at that level of

power,"

Asuka said, "So what does that mean? That the Hulk is much stronger than

Thor?"

Beast nodded, "I think so. Ranma seems to have triggered a rage to Hulk that

was unprecedented. He unlocked some kind of energy projection stage to Hulk's

rage that no one every knew existed,"

Asuka shrugged, "Hey, this is Ranma. He really knows how to push a person's

buttons, be it intentionally or unintentionally,"

"My God," Nightcrawler said, "The Hulk incinerated the entire mountain.

There's NOTHING left. The Hulk destroyed not only the mountain, but all the

vibranium and the tool to mine it. What are we going to do?"

Beast turned toward Asuka, "Have you any idea what Ranma had just done?

Because of his selfishness in getting Hulk extremely angry to turn him into a

'sparring' partner, it resulted in the vibranium being destroyed in the

process,"

Asuka held her hands up defensively, "I have nothing to do with it,"

Beast pinched the bridge of his nose, "This is so bad it's not even funny. Why

couldn't Ranma have just reached out and pulled the mind-control device off?

Why'd he have to do that?"

At that moment, the Hulk came sailing down from the sky where he landed right

by where he and Ranma had been fighting, unconscious. The Hulk didn't move,

having been knocked unconscious not from the landing but from the initial punch

that sent him all the way back to Savage Land.

"Well, it seems like Ranma won," Asuka commented.

"That all seems moot now now that we've lost our chances of getting the

vibranium," Beast said.

The group looked over toward the gaping hole that used to be the mountain and

caught sight of a naked Ranma walking up to the Hulk. He then turned his

attention toward the group and waved, giving a thumbs up sign.

Nightcrawler grabbed a hold of Asuka and Beat and teleported them over to

where Ranma was.

When they appeared, Asuka blushed a deep shade of red when she saw Ranma

naked. Want was with Ranma and being naked?

"Ranma, do you have any idea what you've done?" Nightcrawler said, angry,

"You've just lost us the vibranium we've came here in the first place to

retrieve. Now we are without the only possible 'weapon' to fight against

adamantium sentinels,"

Ranma, without headset device, was unable to understand what Beast was saying.

He assumed it was something he didn't want to hear.

Asuka quickly handed him her headset device, making sure to keep her back

toward him as she handed it to him. The fact that Ranma was stark naked bothered

Asuka but not Beast or Nightcrawler.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Beast asked again, "You've just lost

us the chance of getting the vibranium necessary in fighting adamantium

sentinels,"

Ranma turned around to looked at the gaping hole that used to be the mountain

where the vibranium could be mined.

He gave a meek smile, "I know. I know. I fucked up,"

Beast sighed. He knew it was useless to argue with Ranma. Deep down inside, he

believed it seems like the outcome was the exact same as what would had occurred

had Ranma not been there in the first place. Hulk would've been there when they

arrived, sans Ranma, and they would had been unable to do anything in stopping

him from succeeding in basically destroying the mine.

But still, he could not help but feel extremely angry at Ranma for what had

happened. Ranma could had gotten them the vibranium they needed, but because of

his selfishness, he lost it for them.

"Ranma, what you've done was unthinkable," Beast said, "You have single-handed

doomed many of us. The vibranium was our only chance at putting up a proper

defense against adamantium sentinels. You know that, right?"

"The outcome turned out the same," Ranma shrugged, "Would you guy's have

stopped the Hulk from succeeding in his plans had I not been here?"

Nightcrawler jumped in, "Look, what's done is done. There's nothing we can do.

Both Beast and I are extremely angry at you for what had happened. It could've

easily had been prevented. I hope you learned your lesson, Ranma,"

Ranma said, "Sure did. Seems like even something as simple as my wanting to

spar against someone will have catastrophic effects,"

Nightcrawler walked over to where the Hulk was and removed the small mind-

controlling device that had been controlling him all this time. He was sure he

and Beast had a lot of questions they wanted to ask about what had happened and

how the Hulk had somehow been put under mind-control.

He threw the device over to Beast.

"I should've known," Beast said, recognizing the technology used to mind-

control the Hulk, "This was Apocalypse's doing,"

"So, what should we do now?" Ranma asked.

"We continue on with our mission," Nightcrawler said after a long pause, "We

get you your vibranium so you can make yourself the adamantium engine and be on

your way back home,"

Ranma said, "So, it seems like you want to get rid of me,"

"Yes, after this, we really, truly do," Nightcrawler said sadly, "How could we

possibly want someone like you around if you being around causes destruction

like this,"

Ranma was silent for several long moments as if contemplating.

"Just curious, how much vibranium do we need?" he asked, "How much would be

necessary?"

"What does it matter?" Beast asked, "There's none left for us to mine out. And

even if there was, we don't have the tools to mine it out. Our chances are

gone,"

"How much vibranium do you need?" Ranma asked once again.

"Probably no more than ten pounds of the stuff," Beast said, "It's extremely

powerful and just a little bit of it will destroy the molecular bonds of metal

like adamantium,"

Ranma sighed, "Well, it looks like I'll be using my powers once again,"

"W-what?" Nightcrawler asked.

Ranma extended his hand in the direction of the gaping hole in the side of

mountain. With a casual wave his hand, everything that had been destroyed by the

raging Hulk seemed to magically materialize from nothing, as if time itself was

being reversed and everything caught in blast became to reappear in the reverse

fashion of how it had been incinerated.

It took just as long for the destruction to fix as it had been to cause it,

almost instantaneously. When the destruction had been fixed up, it looked as if

nothing had happened, as if Ranma had defeated the Hulk before he had had a

chance to shoot of the energy projection that destroyed everything.

Beast and Nightcrawler were silent, in a state of shock. Sure, they had seen

Ranma do that once before with that collapsed school, but something like this

made that miracle looked like child's play.

"Y-y-you fixed everything," Beast gasped.

Ranma gave a sad smile, "Yeah, I did,"

"W-we can mine out the vibranium now," Nightcrawler said, heading toward the

mine.

"That we can," Ranma said.

Beast headed for the mine, "I was wrong about you Ranma. I completely forgot

about your powers to undo things that have been done. With your powers, things

seems like it will turn out just fine,"

Ranma shrugged, "Perhaps,"

"Um, you're still naked though," Nightcrawler noticed.

Ranma looked down at himself and realized that he still was.

"Oops,"

new stuff 8/27

"Hey, look, Hulk is getting smaller," Ranma noticed. Only around five minutes

had elapsed since Beast and Nightcrawler disappeared into the mine to go about

mining for some vibranium.

"What's happening?" Asuka asked, "What'd you do?"

"Why're you asking me?" Ranma asked.

"Because anything that happens is usually your fault," Asuka answered.

Ranma held up his hands defensively, "Well, I didn't do nothing, really,"

Asuka and Ranma watched in wide-eye fascination as Hulk's green skin started

to become more and more lighter as his massive frame seemed to shrink. They

watched as the skin turned from green to a light tan, the green hair turning

into brown hair, the muscles shrinking down until the body became what looked

like a slim frame of an athletic man.

"Whoa, the Hulk turned into some brown-haired white dude," Ranma said.

"Are you sure you didn't do anything to him?" Asuka asked a second time, "How

do you think people would react if they found out you just changed this gigantic

green guy into a small Caucasian guy? They'd probably freak out, as well as the

Hulk,"

Ranma shrugged, "I don't really care. It don't bother me none,"

Asuka said, "I'm not talking about that. If you did something, undo it. The

Hulk was being mind-controlled and probably had no will of his own. He should

have to suffer the consequences of what his mind-controlled self did,"

"Why not?" Ranma asked, "Maybe it's better this way. He can't hurt people,

provided he lost the strength that went along with those muscles he lost,"

"If you believed in that, then should we not want to be near you?" Asuka

asked, "You DID kill us when your suicidal self went rampant,"

Ranma said, "Well, I guess you have a point. But, like I said, I did nothing.

I dunno why he's changing,"

"You think this is his secret identity?" Asuka asked, "We've both seen some

weird things on this world so it wouldn't seem all that far-fetched, that some

guy could change into some huge green giant,"

Ranma shrugged, "I guess it could work. There's really no other explanation,"

Asuka's eyes widened, "That could make sense. Look at that guy's pants,"

"Purple pants, even though I lack a sense of fashion, purple pants is

definitely a fashion faux pas," Ranma chuckled.

Asuka gesutred at the ripped purple pants that the man wore, "Not that.

They're ripped, as if he grew big and the pants ended up getting ripped because

of it. That must mean this the guy's normal form and that Hulk form is something

he changes into,"

Ranma scratched his head, "I don't get it,"

"If the Hulk's normal form was the green guy, then he would wear normal pants

to fit his size," Asuka said, "So when he shrinks into this form, perhaps his

weakened state, the pants would no longer fit him and be too big because they

were meant to originally accommodate someone of Hulk's size,"

"Oh, I get it," Ranma said, "That definitely make sense. But what doesn't make

sense is why those pants don't just rip apart completely. The Hulk's form is

obviously too big to fit into those pants,"

"Maybe they're elastic," Asuka said.

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever, I guess it doesn't really matter. Besides, I don't

really wanna think about it. It'd probably confuse the hell outta me how someone

who wears pants so small can grow so big without the pants just busting apart,

even if the pants were highly elastic,"

"I agree," Asuka said.

Ranma walked over to the unconscious man, placing his hand over the man's

mouth but not covering it.

"Well, he's alive and his breathing is steady," Ranma said. He went about

checking the man's pulse and noticed that it was slow and steady, "His pulse is

fine,"

He bend down and get the man a few gentle slaps in the face, wanting to stir

him awake.

"Huh?" the man slowly woke up. He looked around, confused, "Where am I?"

"Who are you?" Ranma asked.

The man regarded Ranma, wondering who he was.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

"I asked you first," Ranma said. He regarded the man for a moment and realized

that there seemed to be no sense of recognition in his eyes. It seemed like the

guy remembered nothing from when he was in his Hulk form.

"Bruce," the man said, "My name's Bruce,"

"I'm Ranma," Ranma said, gesturing, "And this here is Asuka,"

"Where am I?" Bruce asked, looking down at himself. He looked down and noticed

he was nearly naked. It made him realized that he must have somehow assumed his

Hulk persona. This confused him because, for the life of him, he could not

recall what would trigger him to go into his Hulk persona in the first place.

Ranma asked, "Do you know how you got here?"

Bruce shook his head, rubbing his head, "No. The last thing I remember was

jogging when everything went black,"

Ranma looked at Bruce's head and noticed a small gash in the back of Bruce's

head. He didn't notice that initially because Hulk had been on his back

unconscious as well as when he reverted to his normal Bruce persona.

"You have any idea of what happened?" Ranma asked, "Care to explain this big

green guy you turn into?"

"No," Bruce said, "Not really,"

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," Ranma said.

"Thanks," Bruce said. He knew the Hulk had his fair share of enemies and that

if some of the Hulk's enemies knew he turned into the Hulk, they would go after

him while he was in this state.

It seems like he's aware that he turns into the Hulk but isn't really aware of

what happened after he turned into the Hulk, Ranma thought. It's as if this guy

has some kind of split-personality.

"Hey, you have a gash on the back of your head," Ranma said.

"I do?" Bruce asked, bringing his hand up to the back of his head to feel

around. He felt around and winced in pain as he felt a jolt of pain shoot

through his head and travel down his body when he touched a tender portion of

his head. It made him realize he didn't want to do that again.

"Looks like you were hit in the back of your head or something," Ranma said.

Bruce looked at Ranma, "I don't know. Perhaps. Where am I?"

"Savage Land," he answered.

"S-Savage Land?" Bruce's eyes widened, "H-how'd I get here?"

It made him wonder how the heck his Hulk persona had gotten there. He was

aware that Savage Land was in Antarctica. How the heck did his Hulk persona get

to Antarctica? Did someone teleport him or such? Was he flown in? Why was his

Hulk persona brought here in the first place?

"Asuka, can you go into the mine and get Beast or Nightcrawler and tell them

our friend has woken up?" Ranma asked.

"Okay," Asuka said, disappearing into the mine.

"You were trying to cave-in the mine behind me," Ranma jerked a thumb behind

himself, noticing Bruce was most likely wondering why he was there in the first

place, "I have no idea how you got here or why you were trying to cave-in the

mine behind me,"

Bruce said nothing for a moment, "Um, so, who are you? I don't recognize you.

What do you want with me?"

"I don't want anything from you," Ranma said, "It seems like you were mind-

controlled or something, when you were big and green,"

"Hulk, when I was the Hulk," Bruce stated.

"Right," Ranma said, "When you were the Hulk, you were mind-controlled. I took

him out and it seemed like you reverted back to you, well, normal self,"

At the moment, Beast and Nightcrawler emerged from the mine.

"Well I'll be," Beast was surprised, "He's already awake. Ranma must've hit

him just hard enough to knock him out but not for a long period of time,"

Beast was aware of who Hulk was and who changed into him. Many people knew of

his alternate identity, just not everyone. It seemed almost common knowledge

nowadays who Hulk's alternate persona was. Pretty much all the superheroes and

supervillains knew of his secret identity.

Beast knew because he used to be on the Avengers and Hulk was one of the

founding members of the team, leaving the team shortly after he founded it. It

was only natural that he know of his secret.

"Hello, Bruce," Beast smirked.

"Beast," Bruce said, recognizing an old acquaintance. They got together

somewhat well, what with the fact that they are both scientists and have a

common ground.

Beast produced the mind-control device he had kept and showed it to Bruce, "Do

you know what this is?"

Bruce took the device and looked at it for a moment, "This looks like some

kind of headset device. What kind of technology is this? I don't recall ever

having seen anything like it before,"

Beast nodded, "It was used to control you while you were the Hulk. This is

recognizable of the kind Apocalypse uses,"

Bruce said nothing.

"It seems like someone, Apocalypse mostly, had put your other persona under

mind-control," Beast said, "While you were being controlled, you tried

destroying the mine behind us, to prevent us from getting the vibranium we need

from here,"

"Why would you need vibranium from here, Savage Land?" Bruce asked.

"We are pretty confident a world-changing event is about to occur," Beast

answered, "We are preparing ourselves. The vibranium would be most useful in

fighting against adamantium sentinels,"

Bruce's eyes widened, "Adamantium sentinels?"

"Yes," Beast said, "There's been a rash of thefts of adamantium and vibranium

recently reported which leads us to believe Apocalypse is using the adamantium

to develops an army,"

"That's bad," Bruce said, "Is there any way I can help?"

Beast scratched his head, "I'm not too sure. Your Hulk persona would come in

useful, but I have no idea if we can convince your other persona to fight along

side us. Your Hulk persona tends to do his own thing so I have no idea,"

"I've heard about those thefts," Bruce said, "But I had no idea that all this

was going on. I've been following the news about it. One day I was jogging when

everything went black. It seems like Ranma found out what happened, I was

knocked out from behind. The next thing I know, I find out my other persona's

been mind-controlled to help out with Apocalypse's plans, whatever it may be,"

Beast said, "Well, I don't know what reasons it may be, but it's not something

we really want to find out first-hand. It's most likely something extremely bad.

We're currently in the process of preparing for what's to come,"

"I'll try and help," Bruce said, "Not as my Hulk self, but as a scientist. If

there's something we can work on creating to fight against adamantium, we might

be able to do it,"

"Like what? Some kind of Savage Land vibranium directing weapon?" Beast asked,

scratching his head, "Wait, something like that could work,"

Bruce said, "The problem is producing something like that, right? Savage Land

vibranium destroys the molecular bonds of metal so we need something capable of

housing such vibranium and directing it, like a ceramic gun or something,"

"You know quite a bit about this stuff," Beast was impressed.

Bruce said, "I researched a lot into adamantium and the necessary components

needed contain my alternate persona. I happened to research into things like

vibranium and Savage Land vibranium and all other components as well so I'm

familiar with adamantium,"

Beast scratched his chin, "You know what? You gave me a great idea,"

"What's that?" Bruce asked curiously.

"I'm sure we can create some kind of weapon that is doesn't require

electronics that can project Savage Land vibranium," Beast said.

"Why not just throw it like a rock?" Ranma asked.

"Well, that wouldn't work," Beast said, "You need to give it time to destroy

the molecular bond. Throwing it would expose the adamantium to it momentarily

which wouldn't do much harm,"

Ranma said, "Oh,"

"If we can direct the radiation the Savage Land vibranium gives off, we can

use it to melt the adamantium," Beast said, "That could definitely work,"

Bruce said, "But this vibranium needs to be within close proximity for it to

melt adamantium. At that rate, we need to bring the weapon in close enough for

it to be effective. You might as well just wave the piece of Savage Land

vibranium around since it would be just as effective up close,"

"Mr. Fantastic or Forge would be able to help out with that," Beast said,

"They're great at this stuff and can probably find a way to project the

radiation the vibranium emits over vast distances,"

"Mr. Fantastic and Forge?" Ranma asked.

"Mr. Fantastic is the leader of the Fantastic Four and he's amazing at

creating anything," Beast said, "Forge was the person that made the Blackbird.

He's a mutant inventor with the power to invent things as well as the ability to

figure out any electrical device. Last I heard, he was living in Texas. If you

combine Mr. Fantastic and Forge to make something, they will make it. Bruce and

I can help out. I'm not too sure how much, especially with those two working

together, but I'm pretty sure the four of us can create something truly

remarkable,"

Asuka looked at Ranma, expecting him to say something like 'What, does that

mean you guys are going to become a team? I've got a good name for it, the

Super-Nerds'. She was surprised when he said nothing of the sort. Perhaps he

finally started becoming more serious about what was at hand.

Ranma asked, "If that's the case, why don't you guys team up together all the

time to make something to solve a problem?"

"We rarely do," Beast said, "All teams on this world do their own things. It's

major cause that brings all teams together. Something like this would definitely

count as that,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "I guess y'have a point,"

Beast got up and headed for the cave, "In the meanwhile, we've got some

vibranium to mine from here,"

"Right," Nightcrawler said, "We need to worry about getting the vibranium from

the mines first,"

"Morons! Fucking morons!" Ranma threw his hands up in the air.

After around a good hour of mining, something occurred to Beast. How were they

going to transport the vibranium? After a quick inspection of the mine, it was

determined there were no equipment for transporting said vibranium.

"It never occurred to me," Beast said.

"I thought you were the smart one here," Ranma said angrily, "All that crap I

did, fixing the mountain, was for nothing because, in the end, we can't get any

of this stuff back home because we can't transport it?"

Beast gave a shy smile and nodded, "That seems to be the case,"

"Okay, no offense, but the X-Men really suck," Ranma said, "You guys are STILL

batting zero at this point in time. Add another failure to X-Men's

accomplishments. If we can't transport this stuff because it will melt whatever

metal there is that it comes within close proximity to, it's useless to have

mined it out in the first place,"

Beast tried to be defensive, "Coming here was not in our plans. Had we planned

to come here, we would've brought some containers to transport the stuff,"

"So how come you didn't realize that we didn't have the containers until after

we were here?" Ranma asked, annoyed, "If you didn't realize that until now, it

would probably mean you wouldn'tve realized it until then had you planned to

come here in the first place,"

Beast was silent. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry, it

slipped my mind. You have any idea how much pressure I've been under? I'm pretty

stressed out from the knowledge that there's going to be impending doom,"

Ranma said nothing.

"Beast has a point," Nightcrawler said, "I know you may not feel stressed out,

but I sure am. My mind keeps bringing up what's to come. I'm pretty sure most of

the people around has lost sleep over this,"

"I agree," Beast nodded.

Ranma sighed, "Fine, I'm sorry I snapped like that. I guess you have a point.

I was pretty stressed out about what was to come on my world when Angels were

going to attack it,"

Beast said, "We may be down, but we're not out. I can contact the Avengers and

tell them to come bring us some containers. We may hafta wait, but it won't take

that long,"

"Well, there's not much else we can do but that," Ranma said.

Beast reached into the hollow of his belt and produced his communicard and

activated it.

"Captain America, we have a little set-back," he said into the device.

"What's wrong?" Captain America's voice was full of concern.

"It's nothing to horrible, but it is a set-back nonetheless," Beast said,

"We've come into contact with Hulk here in Savage Land. He was being mind-

controlled. We don't recognize the technology used to control him which leads us

to believe if might be technology Apocalypse uses. It just so happens that Hulk

was specifically sent here to destroy the mine where we can get the Savage Land

vibranium,"

"Are you guys all right?" Captain America asked, "The vibranium doesn't matter

so long as there were no casualties,"

Beast said, "We're fine. Ranma was around and took care of him. Get this, Hulk

has the ability to project energy when enraged enough,"

"What?" Captain America shouted, "H-he can do that?"

"I don't know, but Ranma seems to have stumbled upon it," Beast chuckled,

thinking back to some of the things Ranma had to do to get Hulk that enraged,

"Ranma purposely angered the Hulk so much that his speed increased as well as

his strength. We also have reason to believe the Hulk, that enraged, could jump

a distance of over ten miles. Not only that, he has energy projection that

destroyed an entire mountain,"

"T-t-that's incredible," Captain America stammered.

"That's besides the point," Beast said, "Ranma managed to defeat him. All we

know is that he punched him really hard and it knocked him out,"

"One punch knocked Hulk out...when he's enraged beyond anyone had ever seen?"

Captain America asked.

"Ranma hit's really hard," Beast smirked, "Anyway, Bruce is with us right now

as we speak. The important part is that we've managed to mine out the vibranium

except there's a problem, we have nothing which we can use to transport it back

home. It'll just melt through the metal of our plane and probably fall into the

ocean,"

"You need those stone container units to transport it," Captain America said.

"We know that," Beast said, "But we have no access to it around here. We need

someone to bring some of them here to help us transport it back. We can't leave

here in case Apocalypse sends someone else to try and finish off what Hulk had

been initially sent her to do,"

"I understand," Captain America said, "I'll send a plane to come get you guys

and bring along some container units,"

"Thanks," Beast said, "So, how goes everything back at the base? Has there

been any more attacks?"

"Yes," Captain America said, "A major power plant had been struck not fifteen

minutes ago. We are actually there trying to figure a way to help out,"

"What happened? Why had that place been attacked?" Beast asked.

Captain America said, "I think it was to test out the EMP generator a second

time. It's also caused major havoc and knocked out the entire northern east

coast power grid offline. It will probably be taking a few days before it's back

up. But that's not that thing that's got us worried,"

"What is it?" Beast asked.

"It seems like the EMP generator has been duplicated," Captain America, "Three

simultaneous uses of the EMP generator had been detected at the exact same time

in areas spread out over the world. One in Germany, another in Canada, and

another here in the United States. Unless it's through the use of a teleportor

or such, we should expect the worse and believe that the device have been indeed

duplicated,"

Beast said, "My God, that means the Molecular Rearranger is now useless.

There's no way we can get it in close enough with it, especially if there are

three of those devices in use,"

"That's correct," Captain America said, "We need to figure out a different

plan of attack. The success of your mission now has top priority. We need that

Savage Land vibranium. It is of the utmost importance,"

"Okay, I feel a little bit better," Ranma smirked, overhearing the

conversation, "I guess I did use my powers for something that was necessary,"

"Well, we've managed to get our hands on the vibranium, all we need is your

help in transporting it," Beast said, "Do you have an idea of how long we need

to wait?"

"Around six hours or so," Captain America, "Shorter if we didn't need to get

clearance to bring the container units,"

"Okay," Beast said.

"Is there anything else?" Captain America asked.

"Yes, have you come in contact with my team? Did you tell them the news about

the sentinels and such?" Beast asked.

"Yes," Captain America, "They've been informed. I told them about the

sentinels and that you and the group had gone over to Savage Land to get some of

its vibranium. Last I heard, they were heading over to Texas to get Forge. We

let them borrow a second plane,"

"Forge, huh?" Beast smirked.

"Yes," Captain America said, "With you getting the vibranium, they have reason

to believe that Forge can create some kind of weapon that can help project the

radiation from the vibranium over a far distance,"

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Beast said, smiling, "We were just

thinking the same thing. And how about Mr. Fantastic?"

"He's on his way here from Europe to our New York base and will be here in a

few hours," Captain America said, "This is why your task is of the utmost

importance. We are in need of the vibranium to make something that could

possibly deal with the threat at hand,"

"That's very good to know," Beast smiled, "It's really good to know that there

are other people out there that think alike,"

"Well, with such a huge threat in the horizon, we're trying to come up with

whatever we could to deal with it as well as a contingency plan," Captain

America.

"A contingency plan, what kind?" Beast asked curiously.

"Well, Iron Man's already in the middle of making a suit of armor centered

around the use of the Molecular Rearranger," Captain America said, "In theory,

what he's got seems to work, but at the moment, it's all a matter of supplying

sufficient power to the device and suit. He's trying to figure out a way around

that, so he could use the Molecular Rearranger more than once or twice. After he

figures it out, he'll begin mass production of a universal suit,"

"Mass production of a universal suit?" Beast was surprised to hear.

"Yes, for everyone to wear," Captain America said, "Even if the suit is good

enough to use at beating one sentinel, it's worth it because this is a pretty

serious threat we're dealing with. Some of us will we unable to do anything

against such a menace and will need the suit to be of any use,"

"I wish him good luck then," Beast said, "I hope he succeeds in his plans,"

"Same here," Captain America said.

"Well, I guess I best be off," Beast said, "I'll leave you to whatever mission

your currently on at the moment,"

Captain America said, "Okay. I'll do my best to get a plane with the

containers to you ASAP,"

"Thanks," Beast said.

Beast and Captain America ended their transmission. He turned his attention

toward Ranma and Nightcrawler and Asuka.

"Well, it seems like the ball is rolling," Beast said, "We've not got

ourselves multiple EMP generators to deal with,"

"It's really cool how everyone here work so well together," Ranma was

impressed, "It's as if everyone thinks along on the same lines. It's cool seeing

how so many various teams like the X-Men and Avangers, and the Fantastic Four,

and whatever teams there are, come together and work along so well together,

"With world threats like this, it always happens," Beast said, "Every time

this does happen, we hope it wouldn't have to happen again, but that never seem

to be the case,"

Ranma smirked, "So, world-changing events happen here all the time, huh?"

"Not all the time, but they do happen," Beast sighed, "And it's usually always

the same, some insanely powerful being or a person or thing acquires an army or

the resources that takes all of Earth's Heroes to defeat," He was also going to

add that it could be a result of Adam Warlock in some way but didn't want to

bother mentioning it, figuring Ranma would ask about who he was.

"Is Apocalypse the first or the second?" Ranma asked.

"He's the second," Beast said, "He's very worrisome, but not because of his

own power. He's plenty powerful, but not as powerful as some people are. It's

his use of technology that makes him such a menace. It seems like he's gotten

really smart and have started developing a extremely powerful army. By the time

anyone realized it, it was already too late. And not only that, the stronger his

army gets, the harder it will be us to stop it from getting even stronger,"

Nightcrawler asked, "I wonder what Dr. Doom or Magneto many of the super-

villains are doing in a situation like this. Surely they're aware of what's

going on and must be worried as well,"

Beast shrugged, "That I do no know,"

"What, might there be a chance where good and evil actually team up to deal

with such a threat?" Asuka asked.

"Yes," Beast nodded.

Ranma realized something, "Hey, Magneto's base is nearby. Let's go ask him

what he's up to,"

"No!"

Asuka slept soundly as she leaned against the side of a boulder located near

the entrance of the mine. Ranma sat next to her, acting as her pillow as she

seemed to be leaning against both him and the boulder at the same time.

He didn't mind one bit about that. Everyone else was gathered around a

temporary campfire that Ranma had started to keep them warm for the rest of the

chilly night.

The group decided not to sleep, too caught up with indulging themselves in

conversation.

"My Hulk persona has energy projection?" Bruce was skeptic, "How's that

possible?"

"Ranma seems to have angered Hulk beyond anything anyone had ever witnessed,"

Beast stated, "He also moved faster than Quicksilver and blew up a mountain with

the energy blast,"

"What did Ranma do to anger Hulk so much?" Bruce asked curiously.

Beast and Nightcrawler looked at one another.

"I did something with his butt that he didn't like," Ranma smirked.

"Y-you raped Hulk?" Bruce's eyes widened in absolute shock.

"No! He did no such thing!" Beast quickly jumped in, fearing that Bruce might

inadvertently change back into the Hulk from the shock of hearing something like

that.

Ranma said, "No, I didn't so anything like that,"

"Then what did you do?" Bruce had to ask.

"Do we have to answer?" Beast asked, embarrassed.

"I poked you in the ass several times," Ranma said, entwining his fingers and

sticking out his index finger, "I call it the Super Ass-Poke,"

Beast sighed as Bruce looked at him in confused.

"Don't ask," Beast said, "I have no idea how he came up with some kind of

technique like that and I'm scared to ask. We've come to realize that it's

better to not ask questions or else we'll end up more confused than before we

asked him a question,"

Bruce said nothing.

At that moment, the communicard that Beast had came to life.

"Beast, this is Captain America, come in," came a voice.

Beast reached into the hollow of his belt and produced the communicard.

"Beast here, is something the matter?" Beast asked. A few hours had passed

since he last had contact with Captain America and he had been tempted to call

him up to see what the status of the plane and containers were.

"I figure I'd contact you and give you an update," Captain America said.

Beast smirked, "I was getting curious about that as well,"

He didn't bother to wonder how tired Captain America was to be up around now

since it was so late. But then again, that guy seemed like he never needed

sleep.

"I've got good news and bad news and very bad news and extremely bad news,"

Captain America started off.

"Um, what's the good news?" Beast asked.

"The plane with the containers is passing by the southern border of Brazil,"

Captain America said, "Warbird and She-Hulk have volunteered to deliver the

containers and come pick the Savage Land vibranium. It's more than halfway to

your position so just sit tight,"

"That's good to hear," Beast said, "What's the bad news?"

"Iron Man's attempt at mass producing suits of armor geared around the

Molecular Rearranger has been halted," Captain America said, "His base of

operation was hit with a burst from the EMP generator. His entire manufactory is

out of commission. It will probably take a good week before he could go about

with resuming his attempt at creating a prototype Molecular Rearranger Suit,"

"S-so the contingency plan is-" Beast said.

"Scrapped," Captain America finished for him.

Beast said, "Oh man. It kind of makes me not want to hear what the really bad

and extremely bad news are?"

"You don't need to hear it if you don't want to," Captain America said,

"You're not going to like what you hear,"

Beast's lips became a thin line.

"Tell us," Nightcrawler said into the communicard.

"It's been determined that, yes, we are fighting against sentinels," Captain

America said, "And they are made of adamantium and are packing serious

firepower. The very bad news is that they have built-in suppressors rendering

mutants abilities useless against them,"

"My lord," Beast gasped, "Adamantium Sentinels with EMP generators to render

the Molecular Rearranger usless? And now built-in suppressors to suppress

mutants' powers? And not only that, but over a hundred plus sentinels at that?

This is insane. When did you find this out?"

"This lead me to the extremely bad news," Captain America said sadly, "The

Xavier school was attacked,"

"What?" Beast gasped.

"That's not the extremely bad news. Anyway, your school was the latest

location of the attack," Captain America said, "Everyone had been safely

evacuated. There were only few casualties but no deaths. Wolverine suffered

quite a bit of bumps and bruises but his healing factor kicked in after the

sentinels left and he's all right. Luckily, none of the others were around

because they had been on their way to Texas to pick up Forge. They came back to

quite a surprise, seeing their school destroyed,"

"W-where are they now?" Nightcrawler aside, "Were any of the sublevels

damaged?"

Captain America answered, "None of the sublevels have been damaged. They've

taken up refuge here at our base,"

"Where's their base?" Ranma asked curiously.

"It's located not too far from Central Park," Beast answered, "We've had our

school destroyed on several occasions so we're kind of used to it, so long as

the sublevels are intact. Rebuilding the school would probably take Damage

Control a couple of weeks. Damage Control is the company that fixes things that

get trashed in super villain battles, alien invasions, and such. They're very

good and efficient,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma smirked, "I'm glad to see you're not panicking at

the new news,"

Beast said, "Oh, we're both pretty freaked out right now. It's just that

knowing no one was killed in the attack makes us relieved. The school being

attacked and destroyed is superficial compared to the loss of lives,"

"I understand," Ranma said, "I totally agree,"

"Here's the extremely bad news I was getting at. The school being attacked

seemed to have been a testing ground for the sentinels, to see how well the

built-in suppressors seemed to work," Captain America added, "They just attacked

and the X-Men could do nothing to stop them so they were forced to retreat.

We've arrived to help when it was too late, after the sentinels had

disappeared,"

"This is bad. This is really bad. Where did they disappear to?" Beast asked.

"No one knows," Captain America answered, "No one was able to pursue them and

they were long gone by the time we arrived. They were in and out within around

five minutes. It seems they were there just for testing purposes, to determine

how well those built-in suppressors work. Unfortunately, they worked a bit too

well because X-Men could do nothing to repel them. One thing was determined,

they told us that the sentinels disappeared toward the east,"

"Does that mean that there's a chance-" Beast began.

"That Apocalypse's base of operation could be somewhere over the Atlantic

Ocean," Captain America finished, "That's where the sentinels seem to be sent

from. At the moment, the United States Navy is on full alert and telling all

their vessels to be on the lookout for anything suspicious out over the ocean,"

"That's such a wide area to cover," Beast said.

"I know, but it's worth a try," Captain America said, "We also have Namor and

his army in the search as well,"

"Who's Namor?" Ranma asked.

"The ruler of Atlantis," Beast said, "Hot-headed temper and extremely strong,"

"Atlantis, huh?" Ranma shrugged, "Whatever. In my world, it's considered a

myth,"

Bruce added, "He's and the Hulk are quiet friends. Oil and water types that

don't mix really well, but do admire each other nonetheless,"

"You don't get surprised by stuff much, do you?" Beast asked, "You find out a

myth exists in one world where it doesn't in yours. It's like how you're not

surprised at the thought of seeing dinosaurs,"

"I still get surprised, but not much," Ranma shrugged, "I've seen lots of

stuff,"

"Man, we don't even know if Apocalypse's base of operation is in the

Atlantic," Beast said, "There's so much stuff to contend with. It's as if every

step we take forward, we end up taking two back,"

"Definitely," Captain America said, "Also, Mr. Fantastic and Forge are

currently at our base and have agreed to work together. They've already begun

working on a Savage Land vibranium weapon. It's only a matter of time before

they're finished and awaiting the arrival the Savage Land vibranium to test out

if the weapon works or not,"

Beast sighed in relief, "That's really good to hear,"

"Anyway, that's the current situation at hand," Captain America said, "We have

no idea if those sentinels that attacked the school were part of the sentinels

already from the batch that have been seen attacking before, or a new batch. All

in all, either way, we're still pretty overwhelmed,"

"I don't get it, how the heck could Apocalypse possibly come up with something

like this?" Beast asked, "It's like he's pulling out all the stops. I never knew

he was capable of something like this,"

Captain America said, "whatever it might be, it's changed our opinion of him.

It seems like he's a lot more dangerous than we've ever expected,"

"Okay, Captain America, thanks for the update," Beast said.

"Anytime, friend," Captain America said, "Actually, I should be thanking you.

You guys acquiring the Savage Land vibranium seems to be the only glimmer of

hope we've got,"

Ranma smirked.

"You hear that? Because of me, I just gave this world a glimmer of hope

because I'm pretty damn sure none of you guys would've beaten the Hulk without

me,"

She-Hulk and Warbird approached the mine sometime around seven in the morning.

The sun was rising in the far off distance, low in the sky due to how far south

they were on the Earth.

They had landed their plane in an open field located not too far from where

the mine was. They had no real idea where they were going except they had a fix

on Beast's location because of the communicard he carried.

She-Hulk and Warbird each carried two containers for transporting the Savage

Land vibranium with them, one over each shoulder. For the two of them, both of

whom possessed superhuman strength, carrying extremely heavy containers made of

stone that no human could lift was an easy task.

"Captain America said that Ranma guy beat the Hulk with one punch," Warbird

stated, "How does that happen? How is it possible that he has energy projection,

and enough to destroy an entire mountain? How enraged does he have to be to do

that? He never did that when Bruce's wife got killed for god's sake,"

She-Hulk shrugged, "I have no idea. I'm looking forward to asking Ranma about

that,"

"Ask me about what?" came Ranma's voice from behind them.

Both females gave a yelp of surprise, dropping their cargo. To their surprise,

Ranma darted forward and grabbed two of the containers before they hit the

ground, using one of his feet to catch the third container, the forth one

landing right on top of it, stacked nicely.

Warbird and She-Hulk stared at Ranma as he balanced himself on one leg with

two giant containers stack on top of one another, carrying an additional

container in each hand. Seeing the containers resting on his feet displayed

amazing strength and balance and both girls noticed.

"Do you guys mind?" Ranma asked, gesturing toward the containers stack on top

of his feet.

The two girls composed themselves and grabbed one container balancing on his

leg.

"W-where did you come from?" Warbird asked, "We didn't hear you approaching

us,"

Ranma smirked, "I came up from behind you. It seems like you were so caught up

talking about me that you didn't realize I was sneaking up behind you,"

Both girls felt a bit embarrassed. However, they were glad that they didn't

ask something like 'So, what do you think of Ranma? He's kinda cute. I wonder if

he's taken' for Ranma to hear. That would be horribly embarrassing.

"The mine's a short distance away," Ranma jerked said, walking past the girls

to the way, "Follow me,"

He carried with him two of the containers, leaving She-Hulk and Warbird the

need to carry one each. Oddly enough, even though Ranma was completely unaware

that he was doing that kind gesture unconsciously, both girls seemed to have

noticed as they followed along.

"Where are the others?" Warbird asked.

"They all fell asleep waiting for you guys," Ranma said, "You bumped into me

because I was taking a piss in the woods when I happened to have spotted you two

walking by carrying the containers,"

"Could you not have gone into detail about stuff like urinating?" Warbird

asked, annoyed.

Ranma shrugged, giving an indication that he really didn't care if it bothered

Warbird or not, which seemed to bother her even more.

"I heard you beat up the Hulk," She-Hulk said, wanting to change the subject.

"Beat him like a baby seal, yep," Ranma stated.

Warbird narrowed her eyes toward Ranma's back, "Are you always this vulgar?"

"More or less," he said.

"Care to explain?" She-Hulk asked, "How did the fight go? I'm surprised you

looked unscathed after fighting someone like the Hulk,"

Ranma shrugged, "I don't care to explain. I punched him. He went down. End of

fight. He got me good when he toasted me with some kinda weird energy blast that

he shot at me though. He must've been plenty pissed to have done something like

that. Beast said I made him angrier than anyone had ever believed,"

"How'd you get him so angry?" She-Hulk asked.

"I did something with his butt that he didn't like," Ranma smirked.

"Y-you raped him?" Both shouted in unison.

"Forget I mentioned it," Ranma said, "And for your information, I did no such

thing,"

"So what did you do?" they asked curiously.

"Forget it," Ranma said, "Go ask Beast or Nightcrawler, they'll tell you,"

Both of them seemed a bit disappointed. They had been really curious as to

what had happened but realized it was useless to press on with someone like

Ranma.

"I heard that the X-Men are bunking with you guys at your base?" Ranma said,

changing the subject, "Is there enough room?"

Warbird said, "We have several spare rooms at the moment. Some of the X-Men

will have to bunk together, but it shouldn't be all that bad. There are also

couches and such around in the lobby area that could be used as beds as well,"

"So, who will I be bunking with, you or you?" Ranma smirked toward Warbird and

then She-Hulk, "I dunno who to choose from if I had to choose,"

Both girls couldn't help but blush for some odd reason. They couldn't tell if

Ranma was joking or not. All they could do was look at one another, wondering

what to say in such a situation.

Ranma noticed the blush and instantly became defensive.

"I was only joking around. No need to think I was serious or nothin',"

Asuka woke up feeling a sense of warmth.

She had no idea where she was but she liked the feeling. Looking around, she

noticed that her head was in someone's lap and that she was sitting in a seat

that felt much like the seat of the Quinjet.

Her eyes widened as she wondered why here head was in somebody's lap.

She slowly sat upright and looked around and noticed Ranma, grinning at her.

"Morning," Ranma smiled.

"Eeek!" she shouted, slamming a fist into Ranma's face.

Nightcrawler, whom had been busy piloting the plane, quickly put it on auto-

pilot and headed into the cabin to investigate. All he saw was Asuka's fist

planted squarely in Ranma's face.

I don't want to know what he just did to get punched in the face like that,

Nightcrawler thought, turning his attention back to piloting the plane once

again.

Ranma didn't seem amused when Asuka pulled her hand away from his face after

trying to cave it in.

"Y'didn't hafta do that, y'know," Ranma muttered.

"What did you do to me?" Asuka asked.

"I did nothing," Ranma said, "You fell asleep and ended up shifting around

until you became comfortable resting your head on my lap,"

Asuka blushed. Perhaps she had jumped to conclusions...once again.

"Um, how'd we get here? What time is it?" she asked, hoping to shift the

subject away from her. She noticed she was on the Quinjet but didn't remember

how she got there.

"I carried you," Ranma answered, "You slept like a log. She-Hulk and Warbird

arrived to pick up the Savage Land vibranium. After they picked it up, they

headed back for their base. That was about a half-hour ago. It's around seven-

thirty, give or take,"

Asuka looked around, "Beast and Bruce, where are they?"

"They went back with 'em," Ranma answered, "They could be needed in creating

that Savage Land vibranium weapon. I dunno how much they could be of use, but

hey, y'never know,"

"So does that mean it's only the two of us and Nightcrawler?" she asked.

"Yep," Ranma said, "And right now, we're on our way toward our original

mission, that mining facility, Melroy, to get some regular vibranium,"

"Oh," she said.

"We should be coming close to it," Ranma said, "Nightcrawler said we were only

around ten minutes out around nine minutes ago,"

"Ranma, Asuka, we're going to be landing in around thirty seconds," came

Nightcrawler's voice over the speakers located within the cabin, "You guys

should put on your winter wear because it's awfully cold outside this plane,"

Ranma got up out of his seat and walked over to this small closet door located

in the back of the plane. Opening it, he produced a very heavy winter jacket and

winter pants. The group and prepared earlier, before they had left for

Antarctica. They had anticipated the cold weather for when they arrived at

Melroy and brought appropriate attire.

He threw them over to Asuka. She looked at it curiously for a moment.

"This is where you put it on," Ranma said.

"I know," Asuka said in annoyance, "Where's yours?"

"I don't get cold, remember?" he said.

"Oh. Oh yeah," she said. She, like everyone, forgot that Ranma never suffered

from things like being cold or hungry or sleepy. Of course, regardless of the

last two, he seemed to eat and sleep anyway, even if they were more in gesture

than anything else.

Ranma sat back down and gazed out the window and watched the land below the

plane come rushing up as it hovered down to land on an icy patch of ice located

at the bottom of a random snow-covered mountain. When they plane landed,

Nightcrawler entered the cabin and walked over to the small closet and produced

his own winter wear.

"We're here," Nightcrawler said.

"How far are we from this Melroy place?" Ranma asked.

"About a mile," Nightcrawler said, "I know, it seems extremely far especially

when we have to trek through such hard terrain, but this is all so the plane

would not be detected and the area put on alert,"

"I understand," Ranma nodded.

"Do we have anything like snow mobiles or such on this plane?" Asuka asked

hopefully.

Nightcrawler smiled slightly, "Sorry, Asuka, but we have none of that. From

here, we'll be making our way to the facility on foot,"

Asuka sighed, "I figured,"

"Why, something the matter?" Ranma asked.

"I don't like walking around in Antarctica, it brings back bad memories," she

said sadly.

"What kind of bad memories?" Nightcrawler asked, curiosity getting the better

of him.

"Antarctica was where Ranma was killed," she said.

Nightcrawler said nothing.

Ranma laughed, patting Asuka on her head.

"You've got nothing to worry about. Everything'll be all right,"

"Thirty-two tanks and nine SAM sites," Nightcrawler said, "And dozens of

patrolling teams of soldier and countless all-terrain jeeps and armored

transports,"

"Hm, a lightly fortified area," Ranma commented.

"What are you talking about?" Nightcrawler was surprised, "A lightly fortified

area? Man, I hate to wonder what you would consider as heavily fortified. It's

obvious our sense of perspective is extremely different. Something like this

would give even the Hulk trouble,"

The group was hidden amount the rocks a short distance up mountainside. A

short distance from where they were, at the bottom of the mountain was mine

entrance with a large concrete facility with a helicopter landing pad on the

roof located just to the side of the entrance. There was a large air strip as

well just off to the side of the building, only visible because of the lights

planted down into the icy ground.

"This weather's extremely harsh," Nightcrawler said, feeling cold even under

his heavy winter wear, "There's not many army equipment that can stand this kind

of environment,"

Ranma smirked toward Nightcrawler, "So, what's the plan?"

Nightcrawler turned toward Ranma, "Um, actually, I figure I'd ask you that.

I'm loath to admit it, but there's no way I can be of any help in this kind of

situation. If I could, I would teleport us into the facility so we can bypass

the fortification, but I can't teleport you for some reason,"

Ranma said, "I'm gonna make my way into the facility now,"

"B-but there're so many soldiers on patrol, you'll get spotted," Nightcrawler

said, concerned, "If you get spotted, the entire base will be upon you,"

"Then I'll fight my way out," Ranma shrugged, "I prefer not to, but I can if I

hafta. You've got nothing to worry about. I've got experience in this kinda

stuff,"

Nightcrawler looked at Asuka.

"He's done it before," Asuka stated, "But I don't think we have to worry about

that until we're trying to escape with the vibranium,"

"What about us?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Just hang around here and keep Asuka safe," Ranma said, "You've kept her safe

once from the potentially dangerous Hulk, so I think you can keep her safe from

a potentially dangerous situation here. Just hang around and wait for me. If

things get hot and heavy, just teleport yourselves back to the plane and have it

ready to take off,"

"Because they're going to be like a bat out of hell chasing you?" Nightcrawler

said.

Ranma shook his head, "Not really. A few well-aimed ki-blast will stop them

from being able to chase me. Instead of attacking the pursuing army, I'll just

blow up the ground behind making it impossible for them to chase after me.

They'll hafta go around it and that'll give us plenty of time,"

"Are you sure?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Sure," he said.

"Okay, we'll wait around for you," Nightcrawler said, "I'll watch over Asuka

and keep her safe. If things get hot and heavy, I'll quickly teleport us back to

the plane and prep it for take off,"

"Sounds like a plan," Ranma said, "Oh, we should set up a rendezvous point, in

case our plane gets discovered and I need to relocate,"

"Just fly the plane around ten miles out from where you're parked," Ranma

said, "I'll be heading for the plane in a straight line from the facility. If I

don't see it, I'll continue running in a straight line until I reach the

rendezvous point,'

"T-ten miles?" Nightcrawler said, "You're going to be carrying probably a few

tons of vibranium. That's how much is needed to produce enough adamantium to

make the engine,"

Ranma smirked, "Heh, you already forgot what I'm capable of, huh?"

"I guess you have a point,"

Ranma's efficiency was mind-staggering.

Nightcrawler and Asuka watched as Ranma made his way toward the mining

facility where the mined-out vibranium was most likely stored. In a blink of an

eye, he ran the distance from where they were to the back of the facility. As he

slowly sneaked around the side toward the entrance, he spotted a patrol group

about to round the corner of the facility where he would easily be spotted.

What Ranma did next surprised Nightcrawler. He buried himself under the ice,

punching the ground once to create a small hole and climbing in. The patrol

group didn't notice the inconsistency in the flat icy group and seemed to walk

right by it.

Ranma emerged from the ground after the patrol group and continued on with his

infiltration.

"Is there anything Ranma can't do?" Nightcrawler asked Asuka in German.

"Yeah, he can't seem to settle down," Asuka muttered in German as well.

They tended to speak German to each other, something they have been doing ever

since Asuka arrived.

"What?" Nightcrawler wondered what that meant.

"Nothing," she shrugged, wanting to change the subject, "Are you worried about

what's to come?"

Nightcrawler nodded, "Yes, very. Adamantium is virtually impervious to all

physical attacks. Only few things can destroy adamantium. To be fighting against

adamantium sentinels that number in the mid-hundreds if not more, that's

something that really has us worried,"

Asuka listened intently.

"Sentinels are designed to neutralize mutants," Nightcrawler said, "And they

retain all battle date from previous encounters, so they get more and more

effective the more they fight. With us now being unable to use the Molecular

Rearranger against them, the Savage Land vibranium is our only hope,"

"I guess you're glad Ranma was with you guys, huh?" she asked, "Without him,

you wouldn'tve been able to beat up the Hulk and get the vibranium you need,"

Nightcrawler nodded, "Yes, I have no doubts that Ranma single-handedly gave us

a glimmer of hope against those sentinels. Of course, he also single-handedly

destroyed our hopes as well, making the Hulk do what he did and blow up the

mountain. Thank goodness he used his powers to fix everything up,"

"His powers does come in handy, even though he refuses to use 'em," Asuka

said, "I guess with something like that, it was necessary,"

"How come he doesn't use his powers much?" Nightcrawler asked, "He must've

only used it a handful of times since he got here,"

"He doesn't care to," Asuka said, "He used to be human, y'know. There have

been times where he's seen people get in an car accident back home and die, but

did nothing to save them,"

Nightcrawler said, "Ranma's really confusing. He has the power, but he doesn't

use it. It's like he's purposely limiting himself to what he's capable of,"

"Actually, he's selfishly limiting himself to what he's capable of," Asuka

smirked, "That sounds more appropriate. He simply doesn't use it because it

makes him uncomfortable to rely on powers. He's one of those independent types

that never relied on anything or anyone but his own strength and he has this

notion that those powers aren't really his, so to say,"

"I think I understand, somewhat," he said.

"Think of it as having a gun," Asuka said, "It's like using a gun on someone

when all you want to do is just use your bare-hands. In the end, you get this

feeling of loss of having to resort to using it,"

"But if it's to save your life, or someone else's, then it should be all

right," Nightcrawler said.

"No, he will never use his power to save his life," Asuka said, "That I'm sure

of. To save someone else's life, that's different, but still, it bothers him.

He's the kinda person that believes that he can solve everything using his

'bare-hands' even though he has a 'gun' in his possession which is why it

bothers him when he has to use the 'gun',"

"I understand," Nightcrawler said, "What, does he not want his powers?"

Asuka nodded without a second thought, "He wanted 'em gone long ago. But he

can't. Those powers are to stay, and the only way to get rid of them...that's

something he doesn't want to do,"

"How's that?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Urd," Asuka said, "Urd needs to use all her powers to remove Ranma's powers.

Ranma has infinite power. Urd has infinite power. They're the only things that

can cancel each other out. Of course, if Urd's cancels out Ranma's, then we are

without God, which is NOT something we want,"

Nightcrawler's lips became a thin line, "Um, how come?"

"Because then a battle for the throne of God will take place in Heaven," Asuka

said, "Whoever takes over is not someone you want for God. Just the mere fact

that someone WANTS the power of God displays a sense of selfishness. The last

thing we want is a selfish God,"

Nightcrawler gulped, "I guess you're right. But what about Ranma becoming God,

didn't he want it as well?"

"No, he needed it," Asuka said, "He needed it to save someone,"

"Oh," he said, "So there's no other way for him to remove his powers?"

"No," she said, "Not unless Urd uses her powers to cancel out his own. Rei

possess the exact same powers as Ranma, but she doesn't know how to use them as

well, let alone canceling it out. Rei's this girl that became God before Ranma

became God. Unfortunately, she doesn't know her powers that well. The only

person that does know is Urd and Ranma,"

"If this Rei person has the power but doesn't know, can't she just Will

herself to know?" Nightcrawler asked, "Ranma said that if he wanted to, he could

Will himself to be all-knowing. Can't this Rei person do the same?"

"She has the potential to remove Ranma's powers at the expense of her own,"

Asuka said, "The problem is that she doesn't understand Will well enough to be

able to do it. Urd can't use her powers to give her the understanding to do so.

Neither can Ranma. She has to understand on her own, and she can't. You need to

keep in mind that, in a sense, God can't do anything to God. That's why Urd

can't use her powers to remove Ranma's while still retaining her own afterwards.

It's really complicated and I dunno all the details,"

Nightcrawler said nothing.

"At this very moment, Urd's training her sister, Skuld, to take over," Asuka

said, "The problem is that she's not ready for the role and needs time to

understand it well enough to be a good God. Unfortunately, it'll take pretty

long before she's ready. Skuld is currently the next in line for the role of

God, which will allow Urd the opportunity to use her powers to negate Ranma's.

Until she's ready, all we can do is wait,"

"Urd doesn't mind losing her powers?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Nope," Asuka shrugged, "Heck, if it wasn't for Ranma, she wouldn't be God in

the first place. Ranma gave his throne over to Urd...much like how Urd will be

giving her throne to Skuld one day,"

"Oh," he said.

"Man, I don't even know why I'm talking about this anyway," Asuka said.

"Well, what would you like to talk about?" he asked, "All we can do is wait,"

"I guess you're right," he said.

At that moment, the sound of an alarm could be heard emanating from a

loudspeaker located on one corner of the facility. Everyone on patrol could be

seen rushing toward the building to respond.

"Oh oh, it seems like Ranma's been detected," Nightcrawler became nervous.

"I think it's because we were talking about him so much he sneezed and got

detected," Asuka commented.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Nevermind," she giggled.

They waited silently and watched the facility carefully. After a few minutes,

the back of the building exploded outward from this inside and Ranma could be

seen making a run fast break straight toward them, carrying with him this

gigantic stockpile of vibranium. Oddly enough, the vibranium were shaped and

stacked together like that of gold bars.

Ranma was running much slower now that he was carrying a huge cargo, treading

carefully so the stack of vibranium bars would not end up falling down from the

stockpile. He had to watch how fast he ran because he had to carefully balance

the stockpile on his back.

Soldiers could be seen emerging from the opening, guns trained on Ranma. They

fired toward him but missed as Ranma seemed to run in a zig-zag pattern, making

it impossible for them to get a clear shot. This kind of confused Asuka because

Ranma didn't even need to worry about getting hurt yet still seemed to dodge.

Nightcrawler turned toward Asuka, "We better head back to the plane and get

ready to fly on out of here,"

"Right," she nodded.

Nightcrawler reached out and place a hand on Asuka's shoulder.

Together, they teleported back to the plane.

The plane touched down by the roof of the Avengers' mansion, a three-story

structure that was the base of operations for the Avengers. It didn't look much

like a mansion-like house, but more like an extravagant-looking building. It was

similar to the Xavier school in which the exterior belied the interior.

Captain America was there to greet Ranma and Nightcrawler and Asuka as they

emerged from the plane. It was around mid-afternoon, the group having flown non-

stop all the way back home.

"Glad you guys got back all right," Captain America said, "I saw on the news

what happened at Melroy. That was you guys, huh?"

"Yeah, you gonna arrest me or something because I did something bad?" Ranma

asked, smirking, "Y'gonna bring me to justice for my crimes?"

Captain America said, "Well, under these circumstances, no. Just see that you

don't do it again,"

"Great, now I hafta deal with a second Cyclops," Ranma jerked a thumb toward

Nightcrawler, "There's the X-Men's version. And then there's the Avengers'

version,"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Captain America asked.

Nightcrawler jumped in between the two of them, "No need to start a fight or

anything. We're all part of the same team,"

Ranma ignored the both of them as he turned his attention back on to

retrieving the vibranium from the plane. He disappeared back into the plane.

The rest of the Avengers and X-Men came out to greet the new arrivals.

Nightcrawler and Asuka noticed that they all seemed to looked to have suffered

several bumps and bruises, save for Logan, some having cuts on their faces and

arms and such, but looked otherwise fine. The Avengers all looked fine. The only

people missing from the group that Ranma had met were Bruce and Beast, the two

of them deep within the mansion working together with Mr. Fantastic and Forge at

the moment.

To Ranma's surprise, he saw Xavier in the group. He gave Ranma a kind smile as

he sat in that wheelchair of his.

"Holy shit, it's Xavier," Ranma's smirked, "I thought you died,"

"W-what?" Xavier was surprised by the commented, "What makes you think I

died?"

"I dunno, it's like you disappeared for so long that it seems like you died,"

Ranma chuckled.

Xavier cleared his throat, "I didn't hang around the school after you and

Asuka arrived. I went to other places in the country to give seminars and

lectures in colleges. I was also in Africa trying to set up a school similar to

the school where you've been currently staying,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "I guess you were conveniently gone from all of the crap

that's been happening,"

"I may have been away, but that doesn't mean I'm not aware of what's going

on," Xavier said, "When Cyclops contacted me about some of the findings and

thefts, I came back home. Of course, after I arrived, I found out the school had

been attacked,"

Ranma said, "Heh, y'leave for a few days and you come back to find your school

destroyed. That must be quite a shock,"

Xavier nodded, "I was indeed shocked, yes, but it's happened before. The

threat at hand has me more concerned than the current state of the school,"

"I agree," Ranma nodded.

"Glad to see you're all back in one piece," Cyclops jumped in, "How'd

everything go?"

"Uneventful," Nightcrawler smiled, "Just the way I like it,"

"And with Ranma around, that's quite somethin'," Rogue smirked.

"What's that supposed t'mean?" Ranma asked, as he emerged from the plane,

carrying on his shoulder the entire stockpile of vibranium. Seeing this

impressed the group because the amount of vibranium in there weight probably

around a good ten tons.

"It just means that where ever you go, trouble seems to follow," Cyclops said,

"And I must agree with her. Even if you don't try and cause something, it's

usually you that have come kind of connection to it,"

Ranma shrugged, "Perhaps,"

He placed the vibranium down in front of him.

"Well, here's the vibranium you guys need," he said toward Cyclops, "I hope

you X-Men can make me the adamantium engine I originally came here for,"

"Adamantium engine?" Captain America asked.

"Ranma's only interested in an adamantium engine," Cyclops stated, "We offered

to help. It's just that along the way, all this came about and we had to put it

on the backburner until now,"

Rogue asked, "So what's that mean, Sugah? Y'gonna be leavin' us after y'get

your engine?"

Ranma shook his head, "No, I'll stay around and see how things turn out. But

after that, I'm outta here,"

"What, y'don't like our world?" Rogue asked.

Ranma ignored the question, "So, who're these Mr. Fantastic and Forge fellows?

I heard they were working on some kinda Savage Land vibranium weapon. How goes

that?"

Cyclops said, "They're in the sublevels with Beast and Bruce. The weapon's

complete and has been tested,"

Ranma was surprised, "All ready?"

"The four of them really know how to put their heads together," Cyclops said,

"It was tested not fifteen minutes ago before you guys showed up and it works.

The range is a bit short though and they're working at extending it,"

"What's the range?" Ranma asked.

"Around twenty feet," Cyclops said, "That's around fifteen feet more than

Savage Land vibranium's natural effective radiation distance. It'll only be a

matter of time before they get around to extending the distance far enough so

that the weapon could be used at a safe distance,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma said.

"There is a problem," Cyclops said.

Ranma sighed, "And what problem might that be? It can only be used once? There

needs to be a full moon for it to happen? What?"

Cyclops scratched his head, wondering what Ranma meant by that, "No. Nothing

like that. It takes around one minute for adamantium to be exposed to Savage

Land vibranium for it to melt. That means we need to train the weapon on our

target for a whole minute,"

"Oh, that don't sound all that bad," Ranma said, "But then again, there could

be over a hundred sentinels flying about trying to attack you while you're

targeting just one target,"

"Exactly," Captain America interrupted, "That's why, after the weapon is

perfected, it will be mass produced for all of us to use. That way, we have a

better chance since there will be multiple targets targeted,"

"Gotcha," Ranma said, "Sounds like a good idea,"

At that moment, Asuka's stomach grumbled. It was definitely expected since she

hadn't eaten in almost twenty hours. The snack she ate on the plane on the way

to Antarctica wasn't even a real meal.

"Y'guys got anything to eat?" he asked, knowing Asuka was too shy to ask

herself.

new stuff 8/28

Ranma sat with Asuka in one corner of the dining hall, eating along while the

X-Men and Avengers ate with one another. Almost everyone was there save for a

few, like those still working at creating a Savage Land vibranium weapon. They

had invited Ranma and Asuka to join them but Ranma showed no interest. Asuka had

decided to stay with Ranma as well, preferring his company.

"If you want to eat with the two groups, go right ahead," Ranma said to Asuka,

"I don't mind at all,"

"I'm fine," she smiled, returning to eating her sandwich. She blushed, "I'm

more comfortable eating with you,"

Ranma smiled, "How's that possible? I usually get the impression that you

sometimes can't stand being around me,"

Asuka said nothing, too embarrassed to say anything.

Ranma chuckled, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. I won't tell

anyone,"

"Tell anyone what?" she asked.

"That no matter how much it pisses you off having to deal with me, you enjoy

it because you're so used to it," Ranma smiled warmly.

"I do not!" she shouted loudly, blushing a deep shade of red.

The entire dining hall became silent as they turned to see what got Asuka so

riled up. When she quickly excused herself and said that it was nothing and sat

back down, they resumed their eating.

Ranma chuckled as he rubbed the top of Asuka's head, "You're so cute when

you're angry,"

"I am not!" she continued to blush as she tried shove Ranma's hand away.

"So, what, you think you're not cute when you're angry?" Ranma asked.

Asuka narrowed her eyes toward him before she slapped his arm away and sat

down, letting out an annoyed breath.

"I'm only teasing you, Asuka-chan," Ranma smiled warmly, "If I didn't like

you, I wouldn't tease you. I'd just ignore you,"

At that moment, a man that looked to be nearing his middle-aged years that had

short brown hair and gray hair around his temples, entered the dining hall. He

wore a lab coat that reminded him of Ritsuko for some reason and sported a dark

blue form-fitting outfit with the number '4' on his chest. Little did Ranma know

that he was regarding the man known as Mr. Fantastic.

He also spotted another person. The man looked to be Native American with a

moustache and a metal leg and hand. He wore a lab coat over this blue and yellow

outfit that reminded him of the X-Men, as if he used to be an X-Men. Little did

Ranma know that he was looking at the mutant inventor known as Forge.

Ranma and Asuka watched as the two of them, carrying what looked very much

like a large flashlight, approached the large group and began explaining

something to them.

"Judging on the fact that they're wearing lab coats much like Ritsuko, I

assume thy're Mr. Fantastic and Forge," Ranma turned back to eating his

sandwich, "I dunno which is which though,"

"Hey, do you think it's that Savage Land vibranium weapon?" Asuka asked.

Ranma shrugged, "Who knows? Wanna go over there and find out?"

"Okay," she seemed eager.

Ranma and Asuka got up from their seats and crossed the dining hall and over

to where the group was.

"Ranma, Asuka, you two've finally decided to join us?" Cyclops smiled.

"Dude, will you quit asking me to join your team?" Ranma asked, "I'm neither

joining the X-Men nor the Avengers and you're not gonna convince me

otherwise...unless...all the girls-"

"We will do no such thing!" Jean shouted toward Ranma, remembering Ranma's

joke about him only joining if all the female X-Men got it on with one another

while he watched and taped it.

Cyclops scratched his head, "Huh? Did I miss something here?"

"Forget it," Ranma moved a hand over the top of his own head, "It's over your

head,"

"I was asking you if you were joining the group for lunch," Cyclops corrected

himself.

"Oh," Ranma said.

Rogue scooted over in her seat to reveal an open space next to her, "You can

sit here if you want,"

"Riiiight," Ranma smirked, "And where would Asuka sit? That's rather rude of

you, to offer me a seat and not Asuka since she's with me,"

Rogue said nothing, embarrassed.

Warbird smirked. That was rather noble of Ranma, to fend for Asuka. Had he sat

down, it would've been extremely awkward for Asuka since the only open seat was

between Logan and Thor. How could she make conversation with those two? One was

a god and the other was a really good killer.

"I'm just curious if that's the weapon," Ranma gestured toward the

flashlight-like device in Mr. Fantastic's hands.

"Ah, yes, this is," Mr. Fantastic said.

"Oh, we've never introduced you guys," Cyclops said.

Ranma held his hand up, "No need. I don't care to know. There's already too

many people I've met and I don't care to know any more names, even if it is two

more,"

"That's rather rude," Warbird said.

"So?" Ranma shrugged.

Warbird found herself at a loss of words. It was shocking how easily he could

dismiss something.

Logan laughed, "He seems to have shut you up real quick there, Carol,"

Carol was Warbird's real name. He and her were good friends and referred to

one another by names.

"Ranma, you're an obnoxious, insensitive-" Warbird began to spout her

annoyance toward him.

Ranma smiled as he ostentatiously removed the headset device.

"What does that mean?" Warbird asked.

"Ranma only understands Japanese," Cyclops picked the bridge of his nose,

feeling like he was getting a headache, "Since you're speaking in English, it's

a foreign language to him since he's taken off his headset device meaning he

can't hear the translated English words,"

Cyclops should've known that Warbird and Ranma wouldn't get along with one

another. This was because Warbird was an upstanding, well-educated, and

independent woman and Ranma was a crass, crude, and sexist pig. Personalities

like that inevitably clashed with one another.

"So does that mean he can't understand a word I'm saying?" she asked.

Cyclops reluctantly nodded, "Not a single word. He uses that to his

advantage,"

Warbird, not really caring, went about spewing insults toward Ranma, feeling

the need to slug him. After a minute of venting, she sat down, stubborn not to

let Ranma make her so angry that she would storm away from the table in a huff.

Asuka smirked and as she noticed Warbird somehow reminded her of herself.

There was a confrontational quality to Warbird that was similar to Asuka's. She

felt a bit sorry for Warbird, knowing exactly how she felt.

"I'm Asuka and this is Ranma," Asuka said toward Mr. Fantastic.

"I'm Mr. Fantastic," the man smiled warmly.

"And I'm Forge," the Native American man said.

"You two invented a weapon to fight against these adamantium sentinels that

have been attacking?" she asked.

"Beast and Bruce helped as well," Mr. Fantastic said, "They're still

downstairs in the lab working at improving the effective range of the device,"

Asuka scratched her head, "If that's the case, how can they work on improving

it if you guys have it?"

"We have two prototypes at the moment," came the answer, "The other is still

down in the lab with them,"

"Oh," she felt stupid.

Ranma put his headset device back on. When Warbird glared at him but said

nothing, figuring he would take it right back of if she said anything. She would

give him a piece of her mind down the line. She knew Logan knew Japanese so she

would have him be the translator. That way, there was no way Ranma could not

understand some of the things she wanted to tell him.

"May I see the device?" Ranma extended his hand.

Mr. Fantastic looked at the device in his hand and then shrugged and handed it

to Ranma, "So, you're Ranma, right? Thor mentioned to me that you used to be

God. Is that true?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, inspecting the device.

"Used to be God?" Iron Man, She-Hulk, Warbird, Scarlet Witch, Captain America

said in unison. The only people that weren't there to be surprised were Bruce

and Xavier, Xavier having somehow disappeared once again. Actually, Xavier

wasn't there because he had gone by himself to the school to see to its

reconstruction.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," Mr. Fantastic said, "Since you're here, it's

pretty good for me to assume that you're on our side, right?"

"Um, more or less," Ranma shrugged.

"That's good to hear," Mr. Fantastic said, "Anyway, in order to activate it,

just twist the top portion of the device. It's got an effective range of a

little over fifty feet at the moment. It'll only be a matter of time before we

can improve on the range,"

"Damn, you already made the device?" Ranma was very impressed, "That's pretty

damn good. How's this thing compared to the Molecular Rearranger? Is it faster

or slowly?"

"About the same, around a minute," Mr. Fantastic stated, "But the difference

is that this requires no power source and is immune bursts from the EMP

generator. The problem here is that we can't let a device like this leak out,"

"How come?" Ranma asked.

"A device like this, let lose on the world would create anarchy," Captain

America said, "Imagine if some supervillain gets his or her hands on this

device? They will be able to do something like free all the criminals in The

Vault without any problem,"

"But they are free," Ranma smirked.

"It's just an example," Captain America said, "A device like this leaking out

would render adamantium useless, and we can not have that happening. It's too

potentially dangerous. It would be equivalent to us finding out how to make a

nuclear device using household products and the information being leaked out. If

the wrong person gets their hands on it, we are in just as much trouble,"

"I understand," Ranma said.

"We've also put in a fail-safe device for just the occasion," Forge added,

gesturing toward a small band that was around his and Mr. Fantastic's wrists,

"At the moment, Mr. Fantastic and I are the only ones that can fire the device.

There's an electronic device that will only allow the device to be fired if it's

within close proximity to the band on my wrist. If it leaves the proximity, it

won't work. And eventually, the device will break apart so that the technology

can not be investigated and duplicated,"

"Oh, that makes sense," Ranma said, "I was wondering why Captain America's

shield wasn't melting,"

"What?" Captain America asked, turning his attention toward the shield that

was lying up against the wall right behind him.

"I've been aiming the device toward the shield all this time but it doesn't

seem to be doing anything," Ranma said.

"I-I can't believe you were trying to melt my shield!" Captain America snatch

his shield and brought it behind him, as if his body would block whatever

vibranium radiation from the device.

"I didn't melt it because it didn't work," Ranma said.

"That's not the point," Cyclops said, "It's the principle,"

Ranma sighed as he handed the device back to Mr. Fantastic, "Fine, people,

brand me the bad guy because I tried to melt Captain America's shield...even

though it never happened,"

"That's not the point!" Cyclops said.

"Ranma, didn't you say you were going to try and curb your antics?" Storm

asked, "What happened to your promise?"

"I never promised nothing," Ranma said, "I said I'd try. It didn't say I will

every time. And for your information, I have watched what I've said and toned

everything down. Heck, I didn't say quite a bit of stuff where I would've said

otherwise so don't get all angry or nothing,"

Storm glared at him.

"What, you mean Ranma was worse than he is now?" Warbird asked, "I find that

rather surprising,"

"Do you enjoy starting something with me?" Ranma asked coldly, "If you do, I

can make you really wish you didn't,"

"W-what?" she thought she was being challenged, "Is that a threat?"

"No, it isn't," Ranma said, "In case you haven't noticed, not ONCE have I EVER

said anything bad toward you and you've been ribbing on me ever since you've met

me,"

"What?" she said, eyes wide, "And what makes you say that? The moment I saw

you, you had that porno mag-"

"To which you looked at me in a condescending manner and said 'Those things

exploit women'," Ranma smirked, "I didn't forget. I was minding my own business

when you said that. When I stated I don't want to know who Mr. Fantastic and

Forge are, you said I was rude for doing so. You didn't need to make that

comment toward me. You could've just minded your own business. But when you said

something and I dismissed it, it sure got you miffed. It seems like you can dish

it, making rude comments about me, but you can't take it,"

"Why you!" Warbird sneered.

"Go ahead and slug me if you want," Ranma said, "See if it'll make you feel

any better. Just know that you're hitting me after you got pissed at a reply I

said to one of your rude initial remarks toward me. Also, you are not going to

hurt me and will most likely break your hand in the process. You'll end up worse

off than had you not hit me,"

Warbird said nothing. Now that she thought about it, Ranma made sense. She

could not recall a single thing Ranma said toward her that offended her. It just

so happened that she usually made some remark about something he did, which had

nothing to pertain to her, and she getting angry at his backtalk.

There was a moment of awkward silence as they both stared at one another.

"Are you guys through with your bickering?" Captain America looked at Warbird

and then Ranma, "Just get over your animosity toward one another and move on,"

Cyclops opened his mouth to tell Captain America to just keep his mouth shut

but realized it was too late.

"Man, shut up," Ranma said, "Nothing obligates me to listen to you. If I wanna

be angry at someone, that my prerogative, not yours,"

Captain America glared at Ranma. That man sure got on his nerves from time to

time. Now was one of those times.

He caught a glance from both Storm, Psylocke, and Rogue.

"I'll call a truce if she apologizes," Ranma said.

"Me? For what?" Warbird's eyes widened.

Ranma shrugged, "Okay, fine. Then no truce it'll be. It doesn't bother me

none. I offered. You declined. I'm moving on,"

Ranma turned his attention toward Mr. Fantastic, whom had been watching this

was quiet amusement. He had met his fair share of Heroes with a very strong

personality and it seemed like Ranma was one of them.

Ranma handed back the device to Mr. Fantastic, looking at both him and Forge,

"You two have made a terrific device. However, I've noticed something that I

figure I should point out to you two. There seems to be a flaw with your

device,"

"What is it?" Forge asked, feeling challenged, "What possible flaw could there

be?"

"If the device has a fail-safe feature requires you to wear an electronic band

in order to use it, exactly how do you expect to use the device after your bands

were destroyed when hit with a burst from the EMP generator?" Ranma smirked.

Forge and Mr. Fantastic looked at one another, feeling stupid.

"Um, this is still in its experimental stages so there are a few bugs that

need to be worked out," Mr. Fantastic found himself saying, "But thanks for

pointing that out,"

"Yes, that flaw would definitely be a bad thing to realize when in the heat

of battle," Forge added, "Discovering that you're unable to use the device

because the electronics in the fail-safe bands on your wrists were destroyed by

the EMP generator would be a very bad thing to find out in the head of battle,"

Ranma smirked.

"Gee, y'think?"

"That was quite a display y'did back there during lunch," Logan smirked as he

and Ranma walked down one of the hallways together. They were headed toward the

rec-room, Logan leading the way. They were going to go play some pool. Perhaps

Logan would not beat Ranma in a fight anytime soon, he believed it might be a

different story with pool.

Ranma shrugged, "I guess I wanted to vent. I've been feeling a bit annoyed

lately, especially when I realized how easily it was for me to get my hands on

vibranium. It must've made me annoyed when I realized how easily I let getting

the vibranium slip between my fingers by listening to people and not doing my

own thing. It would've saved me so much time to have just not listened to

Cyclops back then during the Philippines. That way, I would've gotten the

vibranium long before now,"

"If yer angry at Cyclops for suggestin' we wait back then, why'dja let Warbird

have it then?" Logan asked curiously.

"Dunno," Ranma said, "I guess she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If

I didn't vent on her, I probably would've vented on someone else,"

Logan smirked, "Too bad it wasn't on ol' One-Eye. That would've been fun

t'watch,"

"Yeah, I bet...for you," Ranma smirked.

"Or on Thor," Logan laughed, "It would've been so amusing to see you yellin'

at Thor and Thor seemingly doin' nothing and jus' taking ev'rything. I'm sure

the rest of the Avengers would be in fer a surprise to see Thor say nothing in

return,"

Ranma smirked, "That probably would've been funny,"

"So, y'plan on apologizing to Warbird?" Logan smirked.

"Yeah," he said, "I'll just tell her I kinda needed to vent and she was the

innocent victim,"

"That might not be enough," Logan said.

"Oh? How do you know?" Ranma asked.

"Carol, Warbird's real name, and I used to do covert operations together,"

Logan said, "We got t'know each other pretty well and are good friends. I know

her and something like a simple apology probably mean nothing to her,"

"Really?" Ranma asked, skeptic.

"And you takin' yer headset off right in front of her...that definitely

doesn't help," Logan said.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "I guess I did go a bit overboard there,"

"I think there is a way to apologize and make it seem sincere," Logan said.

"What, get her a dozen roses?" Ranma asked, "Because I ain't. Y'know how much

confusion that would create? No way,"

"No, none of that stuff," Logan said.

"Then what?" Ranma asked curiously.

"Something simple would work," Logan said, "A simple apology wouldn't work so

you need to put a bit more effort in it. Something like saying that you're sorry

for what you perhaps in English would do the trick. That's because she knows you

only understand Japanese so if you took the effort to learn how to apologize in

her languages, she'd feel much better,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Y'know what? That sounds like a good plan,"

"I know Japanese so I can help ya out," Logan said.

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward Logan, "Why're you helping me out all of a

sudden? That's rather unlikely of you,"

Logan said, "Carol's my friend. I don't like to see her upset like that. You

got her pretty riled up,"

"I did piss her off, didn't I?" Ranma gave a shy smile.

"Yeah," Logan said.

"Okay, fine, what do I say?" Ranma asked.

Logan began speaking in Japanese to Ranma.

"It's not that hard, but I know Japanese have problems with the pronunciation

of the letter 'L'," Logan said.

Ranma realizing that he didn't need the headset to talk to Logan or understand

him, removed it, "Wow, your Japanese's is very good,"

"I used to live in Japan for a while," Logan said, "I even trained in the art

of the samurai while living there as well,"

"Wow," Ranma was impressed, "I didn't know that,"

"Anyway, do you wanna learn how to apologize in English?" Logan asked

impatiently.

"Fine," Ranma said.

"Just say this to her 'Warbird, I love you'," Logan smirked.

"'Warbird, I ruv you'" Ranma tried to emulate.

"Sounds close, but you need to work on your 'L' a little bit," Logan said,

"Just touch the tip of your tongue to the top of your teeth as you say it

instead of curling your tongue around the back of your mouth,"

"'Warbird, I love you'" Ranma said slowly in English.

"That sounds very good," Logan smiled, "She'll probably feel very flattered

and will probably forget about what happened during the lunch. She's one to hold

grudges but with a sincere apology like that, she'll dismiss it, I'm sure of

it,"

Ranma smiled, "That's good to hear,"

Logan jerked a thumb over his shoulder said, "I saw Warbird down the hall

before I met up with you. You should go tell her now,"

"I dunno, I'll tell her after we're done playing pool," Ranma said, "Putting

the headset device back on,"

Logan said, "You should tell her now. That way, the sooner you get it over

with, the quicker you can have her accept your apology,"

"I guess you have a point," Ranma said, "I'll go tell her. I'll meet you in

the rec-room afterwards, where is it?"

Logan smiled, "Just down the hall. It's the fifth door on your right. If you

glance in, you'll see the pool table and me in there,"

"Okay," Ranma headed off.

Logan smirked as he watched Ranma disappear around a corner. He chuckled as he

walked alone toward the rec-room.

"That's revenge for stealing my money back then, Ranma,"

The training room was very much like the Danger Room back at the Xavier

school. Ranma entered the room and looked around and was surprised to notice

that it reminded him much of the Danger Room except perhaps a little bit smaller

and that there were not holograms for opponents. Instead, there were robot.

He spotted Warbird punching at a holographic projection of a humanoid-looking

robot. She was alone and it looked like she was venting her anger at Ranma

toward her holographic opponent.

"Hey," Ranma said, leaning against the door.

Warbird looked up from what she was doing and ended up getting hit in the side

with a well-placed kick from the robot, sending her flying into Ranma. Ranma

caught her with ease with one arm, placing her down on her feet.

"W-what do you want?" Warbird narrowed her eyes at Ranma.

"Well, I'm glad to see you didn't get hurt from that attack, seeing as you

seem fine enough to yell at me even though I did nothing wrong," Ranma smirked.

Warbird let out an annoyed breath and allowed herself to calm down a bit.

"Why're you here?" she asked.

"I came to apologize," Ranma said, "For what happened in the dining hall,"

Warbird regarded him for a moment.

"You think I'd so easily forgive you for something like that?" Warbird said,

turning around and headed back toward where the robot was to with her training

program.

Ranma scratched his head, "I guess you've got a point. Wait,"

Warbird turned toward Ranma, her arms crossed in front of her chest, "What?"

He cleared his throat as took off his headset device, hoping he didn't mess up

his English pronunciation that Logan showed him.

"'Warbird, I love you'" he said.

This shocked the hell out of Warbird that she found herself at a complete loss

of words.

He then put the headset back on and gave a shy smile, "How's that?"

"Um, er..." she tried to form the words, "W-w-why'd you say that to me?"

"Because I mean it," Ranma said. He really meant it, his apology. Of course,

it was too bad he had no idea that he didn't say he was sorry in English and had

said something entirely different.

"I-I-I'm at a loss of words," she said.

"Anyway, I'm sorry for blowing up like that on you in the dining hall," Ranma

said, "I hope you forgive me,"

"Um, y-you're forgiven," she said.

Ranma smiled, "Thanks. Let's let be bygones be bygones and start all over,"

"Um, okay," she said.

Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "Well, I'm gonna go play some pool

with Logan now. I'm glad we got everything cleared up,"

"Um, likewise, I think," she said.

He turned around and left the room.

Warbird just stood there, seeming shocked. She looked toward the small glass

window toward the side of the training room to the observation room next to the

room. The room was very much like the War Room, where the team met up and also

controlled the components within the Training Room.

"I heard it," came Captain America's voice, "I definitely heard him say that

he loved you,"

Warbird blushed a deep shade of red, "N-no way! W-why would he say something

like that? He's in love with me? I've never suspected something like that,

ever,"

"So, what're you going to do?" Captain America asked, a bit amused.

"How should I know?" she said, "What would you do in a situation like that?

What would you do if you're steaming mad at some woman and then she suddenly

walks up to you and tells you she's in love with you?"

"I can't tell because I've never been in that situation before," Captain

America said bluntly.

Warbird said nothing.

Ranma was in love with her?

She never ever suspected that.

new stuff 9/6

Ranma entered the rec-room shortly after he had met up with Warbird.

He saw Logan standing in the other side of the room in front of the pool

table, enjoying a cigar, a pool stick in his hands.

"So, how'd she take it?" Logan grinned, looking up from the shot at the

billiards balls he was about to take as Ranma approached the table.

Ranma waved a hand in front of him to get rid of the smoke, "She took it fine.

D'ya mind not smoking? I dislike smoke,"

Logan blew smoke in Ranma's face as he walked right by him, to show that he

really didn't care one bit how much his smoking bothered Ranma.

"Oops, did I do that?" Logan smirked, "It was an accident,"

The grin Logan made gave Ranma a good indication that he actually enjoyed it.

Ranma glared at Logan. He walked over to the pool table and lifted it up at

and angle, having it so that all the billiards balls ended up going down one of

the corner pockets, ruining the game he was playing against himself.

"Oops, did I do that?" Ranma said, "It was an accident,"

"You did that on purpose," Logan sneered, his claws shooting out of his fists.

"Gee, we've got ourselves a brain surgeon," Ranma said, pointing toward his

own head.

"Why you!" Logan sneered, taking a step toward Ranma.

Ranma grabbed a pool stick from the rack right behind him and held it in front

of you, grinning, "Careful, I've got a stick. Remember what I said back then, I

can sodomize you with that branch back then, and I doubt you'd want this stick

to replace the branch. It's longer,"

Logan swiped at the pool stick Ranma held forward toward him. To Ranma's

surprise, the pool stick feel apart into tiny pieces, dropping down in front of

Ranma's feet.

Ranma composed himself almost immediately, banishing his surprise with

amusement. He grinned, "That's a nice lil party trick you've got there. I'm sure

it would scare little kids and stuff,"

Both Ranma and Logan were about to attack one another when they heard someone

clear their throat from behind him.

Ranma and Logan turned toward the noise and found themselves looking at

Warbird.

"Did I come at a bad time?" she asked, leaning against the door.

"Hey, Warbird, what's up?" Ranma smiled.

"Um, nothing," she said, a bit nervous.

Logan headed for the door, a grin on his face, "I'm gonna go smoke my cigar

outside. I'll leave you two alone,"

"Oh, now you decide to leave?" Ranma grinned, "Feeling lucky Warbird showed up

at the right time t'save y'from a beat down?"

Logan held his claws toward Ranma, "I ain't scared of you. I ain't scared of

nothing. I don't care if you used to be God. I still ain't scared of you,"

Ranma grinned, "From the way you're saying that, it sounds like you're trying

to convince yourself that,"

"Don't push me, bub," Logan said, blowing his smoke toward Ranma's face again,

"You've got on my last nerve a long time ago,"

Ranma shrugged. Logan said hi to Warbird as he walked back and left the room.

"I wonder why Logan left in the first place," Ranma scratched his head.

Warbird smiled slightly. She believed that perhaps Logan was aware of Ranma's

feelings toward Warbird and had left to let them be alone. That was rather nice

of him. Perhaps the mean, morally challenged Logan had a nice side to him.

Ranma smiled at Warbird, a bit glad that she wasn't glaring daggers at him for

some reason.

"Wanna play?" Ranma gestured toward the pool table.

"Um, okay," she said, feeling somewhat awkward.

Ranma looked down at the pool stick in front of him. Realizing it was useless,

he walked over to the stick rack.

"What happened to the pool stick?" Warbird asked curiously.

Ranma said, "I pissed off Logan and Logan took it out on the poor defenseless

pool stick. Poor pool stick,"

Warbird giggled but stopped when she realized she was giggling. Women don't

'giggle', afterall. She cleared her throat to mask it as if she had something in

her throat.

Ranma handed her a pool stick and went about racking up the billiards balls as

Warbird nervously watched.

"Um, I was surprised about what you said back there in the Training Room," she

stated, "I-I didn't expect you to say something like that. I never expected to

hear something like that,"

Ranma smiled, "Cool,"

"Um, however, I must say that that came as a surprise," she said, "You seem

nice and all, but we definitely started off on the wrong foot,"

Ranma nodded, "Heh, you've gotta point there,"

"I guess I can allow myself to give you a chance," Warbird said.

"Cool," Ranma said.

"Okay, how about a date then?" she asked, "We can get to know each other

better then,"

"Huh?" Ranma asked, wondering how the heck a date suddenly came about.

At that moment, She-Hulk entered the rec-room, "There you are, I figure I was

going to find you in the Training Room. We were supposed to spar,"

Warbird smiled at Ranma, "Well, it's best I get going. I'll see you around.

After we're done dealing with Apocalypse, we can go on a date,"

"Um," Ranma scratched his head, wondering what the heck was going on.

"See you around," Warbird gave Ranma a warm smile before she left the rec-room

with She-Hulk.

Ranma just stood there, absolutely confused.

"What the heck just happened?"

Ranma was scratching his head as he walked down the hallway, wondering what

all that had been about that had occurred in the rec-room with Warbird. Did she

just ask him out on a date? He had been talking to her one second, and then the

next second, he could've sworn she had asked him out.

After a while, he decided it was best not to strain his brain and just let it

go. Perhaps he was seeing into something more than expected. Perhaps he had

simply misheard her.

He decided to head on over to his room, the room where he and Asuka would be

staying in for the duration of their stay here at the Avengers' place, and talk

to Asuka for a bit. He had no idea what she was up to and figured maybe she was

up to going out and doing something, like taking a stroll through Central Park

since it was nearby.

As he walked along, the hallways were suddenly filled with a red light.

"How can there be light when I was told that an EMP burst knocked the northern

east coast power grid offline?" Ranma suddenly noticed. There was obviously

power being supplied to the Avengers' place.

"Probably some kinda backup power generator like they have with hospitals,"

Ranma said.

He continued down the hallway, curious as to what the alarm was for. He

figured he'd bump into someone sooner or later and ask him or her what was going

on.

He didn't have to walk for long before he bumped into Asuka, Asuka on the

lookout for him the moment the alarm went off.

"Ranma," she said, spotting him as she rounded a corner and ran up to him.

"Hey, Asuka," Ranma smiled, "Seems like the base is under attack or

something,"

"Where have you been?" she asked.

Ranma jerked a thumb in the general direction of the rec-room, "I was in the

rec-room. I was about to play some pool with Logan until Warbird showed up and

started getting all weird on me but left with She-Hulk to go to the Training

Room.

"Weird on you?" Asuka asked.

Ranma scratched his head, "I dunno. She started blushing and all. I think

she's starting to like me or something,"

"Why on Earth would she like you? Especially after that incident where you

basically humiliated her in the dining hall?" Asuka asked.

"Probably because I'm really awesome and she saw past that incident," Ranma

grinned.

Asuka let out an annoyed breath, "Whatever,"

Ranma chuckled as he rubbed the top of Asuka's head.

Asuka knocked his hand away, "I'm not a little kid. Why do you keep rubbing

the top of my head like that?"

"C'mon, let's go find out what's going on," Ranma smiled, "Sounds like

something bad's gonna happen and I wanna be there to see it,"

"You say that like you want something bad to happen," Asuka said.

"I'm not saying that necessarily," Ranma said, "But it's just that I'm more

used to crazy stuff and just hanging around doing nothing much but trying to

find out what kinda panties the girls of X-Men wear is getting boring,"

"What?" Asuka said.

Ranma suddenly realized he shouldn't have said that aloud.

He pointed, "Hey, look over there, a chicken,"

"Huh?" Asuka looked.

Ranma took that opportunity to run away. When Asuka realized Ranma was trying

to avoid having to explain that slipup of his, she knew he was trying to make a

break for it.

Ranma didn't get far because he ended up bumping into Thor as he was rounding

the corner. Unfortunately for Thor, they ended up headbutting each other,

Ranma's head much harder than Thor's, Thor going down for the count.

"Oh shit," Ranma's eyes widened.

Thor had been on his way to get Ranma and Asuka when he met an unfortunate

temporary demise. Ranma crouched down over Thor and slapped the Asgardian God a

few times in the face to stir him awake.

Asuka caught up to Ranma.

"What the heck didja do?" Asuka noticed Ranma crouching over the large

unconscious man.

"I found him like this," Ranma gave a meek smile.

"Yeah right," Asuka was not convinced.

"I should've been watching where I was going, y'happy?" Ranma said, tapping

Thor's face a few more time.

"You're probably hurting him more slapping him like that," Asuka commented.

At that moment, Captain America came rounding the corner. He was on his way to

the Meeting Room. When there was an alarm, everyone within the building would

drop what they were doing to assemble there. The Meeting Room where all the

Avengers usually gathered to discuss their plan of actions. It was similar to

the War Room back at the now-destroyed Xavier School.

Captain America caught sight of Thor unconscious on the floor. He noticed

Ranma crouching down over him.

"W-what happened here?" Captain America asked, surprised to see the super-

tough Thor out cold.

Ranma gave a shy smile, "I should've been watching where I was going. We

bumped heads. He went down for the count,"

Captain America's eyes widened in shock, "Y-you bumped heads? You've got to be

kidding me! Even the Hulk, Juggernaut, and Kang have never knocked Thor out,"

"Kang?" Ranma asked.

Captain America said, "Forget about it,"

"So, what's with the alarm?" Ranma figured he should change the subject.

It took a moment for Captain America to compose himself, "We've received word

from a Navy sailing around a hundred miles east of Long Island that had spotted

a large group of sentinels flying west toward Long Island,"

"Sounds serious," Ranma said.

Several X-Men and Avengers rounded the corner, on their way to the Meeting

Room to assemble. More were on the way. They all came to a skidding halt when

they saw Ranma crouched over an unconscious Thor.

"What the heck did you do, Ranma?" Jean said in surprise, "You knocked out

Thor!"

"Why do you go an automatically blame me for somethin' like this?" Ranma

asked, gesturing toward Thor's unconscious form, "What makes you think he didn't

do something like walk into a door?"

"So what happened?" Jean asked, skeptic.

"I accidentally ran into him," he gave a shy smile, "It was purely

accidental,"

Most of the Avengers had this look of shock on their face. The X-Men seemed

surprised, but not quite as surprised at seeing Thor unconscious, having seen

him unconscious before.

"A-are you trying to tell us that you accidentally bumped into Thor and

knocked him out?" She-Hulk was there to ask.

Ranma nodded, "Let's not make a big deal outta it. It was an accident,

really,"

"You knocked Thor out!" Warbird said in shock, wondering exactly who Ranma

was. She nor the rest of the Avengers knew who Ranma was. But she knew that if

Ranma was able to knocked Thor out, he was definitely someone to be on the look

out for.

"I said it was an accident," Ranma said in annoyance, "Jeez, we all make

mistakes. I ain't perfect or nothing,"

Thor began to stir and wake back up.

"Damn, this guy's tough as hell, he's already waking back up," Ranma was truly

impressed. They had bumped heads fairly hard and he believed Thor would've been

out for a long time. If Ranma tried running away from something and wasn't

paying attention, bumping into Ranma would be equivalent to getting hit by a

freight train.

Thor opened his eyes and looked around, a bit disoriented.

"Y'know where you are?" Ranma asked, hoping against hope that he didn't hit

Thor so hard that he suffered amnesia.

"What happened?" Thor asked.

"You ran into a door," Ranma said.

"Ranma!" everyone seemed to shout at him.

Ranma said, "We accidentally bumped heads. I wasn't watching where I was going

and we collided into one another,"

Thor rubbed at his head, "That explains why my head hurts right now,"

"Are you okay?" Captain America asked his comrade.

Thor dusted himself and got back to his feet, "I am fine,"

He looked around for where his Hammer was and saw it right by Ranma's feet.

Everyone was shocked as they watched Ranma picked up Thor's Hammer and handed

it to him, "Here y'go,"

"Thank you," Thor accepted it, showing no signs of surprise at seeing Ranma

picking up his Hammer with ease. Everyone else were in a state of shock, even

the X-Men.

"I've seen him do it before, but it still surprises me to see him pick the

Hammer up," Jean stated, "It seems kind of surreal,"

"We can discuss what we saw later, we have more important matters at hand,"

Captain America jumped in, "Let's all go to the Meeting Room,"

"I'm sorry for what happened," Ranma said to Thor.

"It is fine," Thor dismissed, "There is no need to apologize,"

Ranma felt bad for what he had done. He probably humiliated Thor in front of

his friends. Thor was probably one of the toughest Heroes around, and his

comrades seeing him knocked out on the floor like that would definitely be

something that would be considered embarrassing toward the large man.

Ranma suddenly realized that there was a good way to apologize to Thor. He

would apologize to him in English, like Logan had taught him.

He took of his headset device,

"'I love you'," He didn't add in the 'Warbird' because it was pronounced the

same in English and Japanese and he knew he needed to remove it since he was

saying that to the entire group.

"What?" everyone was shocked to hear.

Ranma looked at Thor, noticing Thor looked surprised. Perhaps he didn't hear

or the way he pronounced the English apology sounded somewhat off. He decided to

say it a bit slower.

Ranma smiled at Thor.

"'I love you',"

Ranma glared at Logan as he stood by the large table within the Meeting Room.

Shortly after Ranma had found out the real meaning of the words Logan had taught

him, he had been about to knock Logan out but was stopped when several X-Men got

in his way to stop him, to tell him now was not the time to fight.

Ranma reluctantly backed off, telling Logan he was lucky before everyone went

off to the Meeting Room. In the meanwhile, Ranma was going to have fun glaring

daggers at Logan and making even a man like Logan nervous.

"The incoming sentinels could be a ruse," Cyclops stated, "We need to spread

out our forces,"

"I doubt it," Captain America said, "The Navy ship said they spotted well over

a hundred sentinels on route toward Long Island. There's a good chance that the

incoming sentinels are the real deal and that a ruse will occur elsewhere,"

"Even if it is or isn't a ruse, we still need to respond," Cyclops said.

"I agree," Captain America said, "We need to leave a force behind to deal with

wherever the ruse will occur should it occur,"

Ranma said, "Wouldn't it be a bit hard? You said those sentinels have those

suppressors that basically negates mutant powers, right? Doesn't that mean the

X-Men are useless,"

The entire X-Men group narrowed their eyes toward Ranma.

"What?" Ranma said, "If I said something wrong, lettme know. I'm just pointing

out something I'm sure everyone here knows but bothered to say it aloud,"

Jean said, "Even if our powers do get suppressed, that doesn't mean we can't

be of use. The suppressors are proximity based. So long as we stay within a

certain distance away from the sentinels, we will maintain our powers,"

"What good is that?" Ranma asked, "They're made of adamantium, right? What the

heck can you guys do with your powers from a distance?"

"You do have a point there," Jean said.

"What do you suggest?" Cyclops asked Ranma, curious as to what Ranma's

suggestion would be.

"I recommend you guys help out with the evacuation of the surrounding area,"

Captain America said.

Ranma looked annoyed, "Hey, he asked me for my suggestion, not you,"

He realized this was the first time Cyclops was actually curious as to his

input and didn't like the thought of being dismissed because of Captain

America's interruption.

"Fine, what is your suggestion then?" Captain America asked.

"We have two of those Savage Land vibranium weapons, right?" Ranma asked, "We

can bring one with us. Even though they don't have their powers, that doesn't

mean they can't use it,"

Mr. Fantastic said, "That's a valid point, but the weapons are still at its

experimental stages. Should they get damaged before we can begin mass production

of it, it will set us back quite a bit of time in replacing them,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "So what does that mean, that the weapons are out of

the question?"

"For now," Forge piped in, "We have yet to work in the fail safe device. We

can't allow this weapon to fall in the wrong hands,"

"Okay, so the weapon's out of the question," Ranma said, "That doesn't mean we

are outta options. That just means we need to go back to the Xavier School,"

"The Xavier School, for what?" Cyclops asked.

"Everything underground is intact, right?" Ranma said, "Well, that means the

hanger is intact so the adamantium bars we've, um, acquired are still in there.

Adamantium pierces adamantium. We can use those bars as weapons,"

Beast said, "That almost sounds like a good plan, but the only people with the

strength to probably be able to make use of something like that would be Thor,

and I'm not too sure of that,"

"Adamantium pierces adamantium?" Captain America asked.

Ranma said, "I got pissed off and shoved an adamantium bar through your

shield. It was because of that that we found out this bit of information,"

"Y-you broke my shield?" Captain America looked down at his shield.

Ranma said, "Don't worry, it's as good as new,"

"We're going to have to talk about that when we're done with this," Captain

America said.

Ranma shrugged, "Okay, if y'want. Anyway, with the adamantium bars, I can

easily used them as projectiles for destroying the sentinels,"

"Why do you need adamantium bars?" Beast asked, "I saw you use your powers to

rip a hole in a mountain. Isn't that enough to destroy adamantium sentinels,"

"I doubt it," Ranma said truthfully, "My ki-blasts are strong, but not that

strong. Adamantium is strong, definitely stronger than some ki-blast. My most

powerful ki-blast is of nuclear power. If adamantium can withstand something

nuclear, than it's useless for me to use my ki-blasts,"

Beast showed signs of worry, his brow creasing.

"Don't worry, just because I can't use ki-blast on them, it doesn't mean I

can't use other things," Ranma grinned, "I'm strong enough to destroy adamantium

with my bare hands. If worse comes to worse, I'll just fly up to them and just

rip these sentinels apart by hand. I've dealt with robots before and hundred

plus foot robots don't worry me one bit,"

"I hope you're right," Cyclops said.

"So I guess we head off to the Xavier School then?" Captain America asked,

"That still doesn't explain what we should do afterwards. You may be able to

deal with these sentinels, but that doesn't mean we can,"

"If you can't handle the sentinels, then just run away," Ranma shrugged.

"What?" Captain America asked.

"Just run away," Ranma said, "Just take cover somewhere safe and I'll deal

with 'em. Sure, stuff's gonna get destroyed because there's only one of me and

over a hundred of 'em, but I'll eventually defeat 'em, so you've got nothin' to

worry about,"

Rogue said, "How can y'be so confident in a situation like this? Three or four

adamantium sentinels will probably give the Avengers and X-Men a run for their

money. Y'seem awfully calm abou' the thought of dealing with over a hundred of

'em,"

Ranma chuckled, "Sorry, as arrogant as it may sound, but you guys and I are

in completely different leagues. Thor here is some kinda god and even he isn't

aware of what I can do,"

"Your Will is Law," Thor stated, "What you want can and will happen,"

"Thor, can you please stop saying stuff like that about me?" Ranma said, "Will

you please stop revering me and such? It's creeping me out,"

"Very well," Thor said.

Everyone in the room just stood in a state of shock as Ranma seemed to have

just told Thor to shut up and Thor obediently did as he was told. Thor obviously

knew something about Ranma that none of them knew. Was their ignorance of

Ranma's abilities what made them not act the way toward Ranma liked Thor did?

"Anyway, if you guys really want, just hang back and worry about damage

control," Ranma said, "I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of damage if I end up

fighting them over land instead of over the water. Seeing to the evacuation of

innocents is of top priority,"

"But if they die, can't y'just bring 'em back like y'did for the children

durin' when the school collapsed?" Rogue asked.

"What, because of something like that, it's okay to let people die?" Ranma

said, "And for your information, if they die, I ain't bringing 'em back. You

have one life. If you lose it, it's not my call to give you a second chance. I

can, but I won't,"

Everyone was silent.

"How come?" Psylocke asked.

"You won't understand," Ranma said.

"You seem to use that excuse a lot," Psylocke said, "That some things are

beyond our comprehension,"

Ranma said, "So? That's because it is,"

"Look, we need to think of a plan," Captain America interrupted, "We've only a

short amount of time before the sentinels reaches Long Island,"

Ranma said, "Well, let's hurry and get me those adamantium bars and into the

fray,"

Ranma and Asuka walked down the hallway together, on their way toward the top

floor where the hanger bay was located.

"Ranma," Asuka said.

"Hm?" Ranma asked.

"I'm worried," she said nervously.

"About what?" he asked, "You mean about what's to come?"

Asuka nodded, "Yeah. It feels like the coming of the Angels, like back on my

own world when I was piloting an EVA and knew there was an incoming Angel,"

Ranma smiled warmly, "Don't worry. This'll turn out fine. In case you're

wondering, not only am I here, but the Avenger and X-Men are here as well,"

Asuka felt a bit better but was still nervous, "But we're talking about

adamantium robots over a hundred feet tall. Even the Avengers and X-Men are

worried about what's to come,"

He said, "I know. Everyone's worried. Even I'm worried, but you can't let that

drag you down. Even though we've yet to see the Avengers or X-Men do anything

spectacular, I'm sure they've dealt with overwhelming odds and came out on top

and are experienced with dealing with such tasks,"

"I hope you're right," she said.

Ranma chuckled, "Heck, if you think about it, the Avengers and X-Men remind me

of what kinda team we have back home when the Angels attacked our world. We've

dealt with impossible odds as well,"

"You do have a point there," she nodded.

Asuka and Ranma continued walking along, trailing behind everyone as they

headed for the top floor. Since they knew where to go, it didn't matter if they

fell behind since it took a bit of time for the plane to be prepped for take

off.

"I'd like you to stay here," Ranma said.

"What? Stay here? Why?" she asked in quick succession.

"Because it'll be dangerous where we're headed," he said, "I want you to stay

here where it's safe,"

Asuka was silent.

"More than half of the Avenger and X-Men are staying behind while I and the

others go deal with these incoming sentinels," Ranma said, "We're headed into

danger and I don't wantcha to be in danger,"

"W-why this all of a sudden?" Asuka asked, "I've been with you all the time

since we've got here. How come I can't come with you now all of a sudden?"

Ranma said, "I have my reasons,"

"What reasons?" she asked.

"One is that I don't wanna hafta worry about protecting you while dealing with

the sentinels," he said, "These sentinels may be easy for me to deal with, but

it doesn't mean it'll be easy for me to deal with while having to protect you,"

Asuka said nothing.

"Is there any other reason?" she asked, "You said 'one' which means there's

gotta be more,"

Ranma said, "The second reason is that I can't project an AT Field around you

anymore,"

"An AT Field?" Asuka said.

"Yeah," he said, "I learned from before with my adventure with Nene that I'll

never put any of you in danger again,"

"Huh?" Asuka was confused.

"Ever since Nene got hurt, even though it was nothing serious, I've realized

I'm not gonna risk any of you getting hurt," Ranma said, "Ever since our arrival

here, you've had an AT Field protecting you,"

"I-I have?" Asuka's eyes widened in shock.

"You simply weren't aware of it because it was never put in use," Ranma said,

"And because of it, I was able to be a bit less, I guess, relaxed about your

safety, because I knew you will be protected no matter what happens,"

"R-really?" Asuka's eyes widened.

Ranma nodded, "Why do you think I'm not all that worried about your safety,

because I knew you were safe. That's why I attacked Apocalypse that time when he

held you captive, because whatever he tried to do to you before I managed to hit

him would've been useless,"

Asuka was in a state of shock, "I-I've been protected the whole time?"

"Yes, ever since we've showed up here," Ranma said, "But not anymore because I

can't focus on shielding you with an AT Field while fighting these sentinel

robot thingies. Your safety means a lot to me, but so does stopping those

incoming sentinels,"

Asuka scratched her head, "If I had an AT Field on me, then what about Logan

threatening to-"

"I just humored him," Ranma said, "He wouldn'tve been able to hurt you if he

tried. Heh, do you REALLY think I'm stupid to let you be my weakness?"

Asuka became somewhat sad.

"Hold up, don't get the wrong idea or nothing," Ranma said, holding his hands,

"I've seen enough television to know that if someone has to fight me, and they

realize that they're out of their league, they'll try and go after me

indirectly, namely through you or friends. Sorry, something like that isn't

gonna work. It may work in comic books and movies and anime and television...but

it doesn't work in real life,"

Asuka gave a slight smile, "Well, I guess that's good to hear. You think

ahead,"

Ranma chuckled, "Of course. Just because I'm powerful, it doesn't mean I don't

use my head. Powers mean nothing if you don't use your head. I've always used my

head more than my powers and that's still the case to date,"

"If you always use your head, then why do you do stupid stuff?" Asuka asked

curiously.

Ranma gave a meek smile, "Hey, not everyone's perfect. Anyway, the point I'm

getting at is that I want you to stay here, where you're safe from possible

harm,"

"Okay," she said, "I-I guess I can do that,"

Ranma smiled, "Thanks,"

new stuff 9/8

Ranma sat between Psylocke and Jean on the plane as it raced toward the Xavier

School. The strike team that had been assembled to deal with the incoming

sentinels was made up of Ranma, Psylocke, Captain America, Thor, and Jean. At

the moment, Captain America and Thor were in the cockpit piloting.

The strike team assembled was determined based on the psychological effects

they would have on evacuating civilians. The sight of seeing Thor and Captain

America would have a calming effect and prevent people from panicking as they

are evacuated. And should some panic anyway, Jean and Psylocke could use their

telepathic abilities to remove the sense of panic from their minds.

More team members could have come along, but they needed to keep a reserve of

members ready for action should the attack be a ruse. More team members would be

needed to deal with that because, without Ranma, they wouldn't have much they

could do to stop the sentinels except slow them down and wait for Ranma to

finish off the sentinels he had gone after initially and return to them. Without

a long-range mass-produced Savage Land vibranium weapon, there was nothing they

could do to deal with adamantium sentinels except slow them down.

"So, these sentinels are giant robots, huh?" Ranma asked, "It's not manned by

some person, is it?"

Jean said, "No. It's completely automated. You can attack them to your heart's

desire, so long as you take heed to be careful not to cause collateral damage or

at least keep it to a minimum.

"Cool, I look forward to blowing up robots," Ranma grinned.

"You have something against robots?" Psylocke asked curiously.

"In my world, they used to be called boomers," he answered, "Boomers killed my

friends and family. I don't particularly care for boomers. There is an exception

because Akane, a girl I knew from my past, is a boomer,"

"Who is this Akane person?" Psylocke asked.

"She used to be my fiancé," he answered, "This was several decades ago, when I

was around sixteen,"

Jean said, "Several decades? Sixteen? How old are you anyway?"

"I lost count," Ranma shrugged, "I'm somewhere over a hundred,"

Psylocke said, "Well, you sure look good for someone over a hundred,"

"Is that a come-on?" Ranma grinned, nudging at Psylocke.

"I-I am not!" Psylocke said, blushing, "I was just pointing something out,"

Ranma chuckled, "If y'say so,"

"Say, are you and Psylocke seeing one another?" Jean asked curiously, "I've

heard about how you met up with Spider-Man and all while on a date and had to

cut it short when we came and picked the two of you up in the city. Do you plan

on resuming the date or going on another one since it had been cut short,"

Ranma said, "How can you be asking me something like that when we are about to

fight what could be a hundred of adamantium sentinels? Shouldn't questions like

that be asked when, I dunno, there ISN'T some world-changing event looming on

the horizon?"

"I guess it's because we feel comfortable knowing that you're with us,"

Psylocke said, a bit embarrassed.

"That don't mean crap," Ranma said, "Just because I can deal with 'em doesn't

mean you should rest easy or nothin',"

"Now that I think of it, can't you just fix everything up after the battle?"

Jean asked, "Nightcrawler and Beast mentioned of how you used your powers to fix

the destruction. You're, like, some kind of Deux Ex Machina,"

"Deus Ex Machina?" Ranma asked.

"It's Latin for 'God of the Machine'," she said.

"Oh, gee, that clears EVERYTHING up," Ranma said, slapping his head.

Jean narrowed her eyes toward him, "You didn't let me finish. It's stems from

Greek and Roman theatre when stage machinery would lower a 'god' onto the stage

to solve a hopeless situation. Thus, that's where 'God of the Machine' came

from,"

Ranma smiled, "Oh, I get it. I guess if you think about it, yeah, ya've gotta

point. There's stuff I can solve with just a wave of the hand if I wanted to. I

can snap my finger and cure world hunger if I wanted to,"

"So why don't you?" Jean asked.

Ranma waved his fingers toward Jean as if he was doing sign language, "Because

you wouldn't understand. It's beyond your comprehension,"

"Try me," Jean said, "Just humor me,"

Ranma sighed, "World hunger is a 'necessary evil'. The real 'necessary evil'

is War though. These 'necessary evils' are there to prevent overpopulation of

any particular species. This slows down the need for a species to expand out

into space to pioneer other planets for living space and resources. If a species

moved out into space and started colonizing planets, when they reach a certain

percentage in the 'colonization of the universe', Urd will come and wipe out the

race and restart the universe anew, minus the wiped out race. This is because it

is Law that expansion of any species never reach beyond a certain point of

colonization,"

"How so?" Jean asked, "We still follow you but we don't understand why

something like this should happen, the total destruction of a species and the

restarting of existence without said species so to say,"

"Y'see, if I answer something, it bring up yet another question," Ranma

sighed, "This can go on forever. If a species expands too much, they will

eventually stumble on the lands of the divine, where Urd and Angels and divine

beings dwell. When that happen, war breaks out between the divine and the

expanding species. It's inevitable that they will fight because at that point in

time, for a species to expand that far to reach that level, they are only

interested in expansionism. Urd will step in a basically shut the species up and

teach 'em who's boss and wipe out their existence. To her, it's basically like a

stranger entering your house uninvited and you kill the stranger for doing so,"

"If Urd has infinite power, why would she just expand the Universe even more

to compensate for such an expansion of a species?" Psylocke asked.

"Because she doesn't want to," Ranma shrugged.

"Why?" they both asked.

"Because she dislikes arrogance," Ranma said, "For a species to reach that

level, it has basically colonized the entire universe and has developed an ego

and believes it's the ultimate species. That's when she steps in and teaches the

species a lesson in humility. Sure, she COULD expand the universe to compensate

the species' expansion, but she doesn't' want to. Why? Because she's God and if

she doesn't want to there ain't nothing you can do about it,"

Both girls were silent.

"'Necessary evil' is there because it prevents the rapid expansion of any

species," Ranma said, "I have no intention of fixing or removing any 'necessary

evil' because I believe in it as well. If I was in Urd's shoes, I would do the

exact same thing. You won't understand why I would believe in it so I'm not

gonna bother explaining it,"

"You make everything sound so confusing," Jean stated.

"It's confusing to you but it makes perfect sense to me," Ranma said, "The

problem is that you will never be able to understand what I understand. That's

just the way it is. What humans understand it only one trillionth of how things

work. Heck, like numbers, you guys are missing four numbers,"

"What?" they asked.

"You're missing the numbers Kon, Evant, Tonel, and Ens," Ranma said, "If you

knew about those numbers, it would completely destroy your sense of mathematics

which will destroy your sense of physics which will destroy your understanding

of what you believe to be right. That's why I mentioned to Beast how the Laws of

Physics he believes in is wrong back then, because those numbers were never

accounted into mathematics,"

"I assume you're not going to explain those four numbers, are you?" Psylocke

asked.

Ranma laughed, "Bingo. I definitely ain't explaining that to you. But that

should give you general idea of how much stuff there is that you don't know.

Because you guys don't know those four numbers, that's why time travel isn't all

that easy for you guys, provided you can time travel and such,"

"Wait, we can time travel," Jean said, "Cable, my son, is a time traveler,"

"Your son?" Ranma asked, "No shit,"

"He's my son from the future," Jean said, "He hasn't been born yet in this

timeline. My son from the future is actually still around. He's in space

though,"

"Space? What for?" he asked.

"After aliens and such," she said matter-of-factly.

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever. I'd like t'meet him one day. Anyway, back to time

travel, that's one of the reasons why time travel is harder for you guys,

because you guys are missing four numbers from your mathematical system. If you

knew of those four numbers, you can actually, through simple Will, go galaxy-

hoping anywhere you want as well as to any timeline you want and create whatever

you want. If you knew of those numbers, you guys would have the infinite

timelines open to you and can actually become individual God of timeline you

create. In a sense, you become the Urd of the universe of your own creation,"

They both stared at Ranma in shock, "R-r-really?"

"Could there be someone higher than her?" Psylocke asked, "If Urd is the God

of her own creation, could that mean that there is someone higher than her that

allowed her to do that and she not be aware of it?"

"What, y'mean like she's some character in a fanfic meaning the fanfic writer

is actually God?" Ranma asked.

"Huh?" they both asked.

"That's ridiculous," Ranma laughed, "Y'need t'understand that there's no one

higher than Urd. The point I'm getting at is that there so much stuff that you

guys don't understand. Why do you think I can travel between worlds and visit

this place in the first place? Because I understand it. It's just like riding a

bike. Unless you experience it and understand it, it's useless for someone to

explain it. It's exactly the same way,"

"Okay, perhaps it's best that you stop telling us how little we know about

things," Psylocke said with a sigh, "What you're telling us I'm sure makes us

feel very inferior,"

"Hey, you're the ones that asked the questions," Ranma said, "I told you the

more questions you asked, the more questions you're going to have. It could go

on forever. For every question answered, you'll have two ask two more questions

to understand that particular answer, which will bring up four questions that

you need to ask to understand that and so on,"

"I agree," Jean nodded, "It's best that we just leave well enough alone and

not ask anything more about trying to understand how things work,"

"What the heck were we talking about before?" Ranma scratched his head, "Oh

yeah, that Deus Ex Machina term. That's cool. If I ever decide to stay on this

world, maybe I'll take on that name,"

"Y-you plan on staying here?" Psylocke asked in surprise.

"I don't think so," he said, "This place is nice but I like my own world thank

you,"

At that moment, Thor entered the cabin.

"We have arrived at the Xavier School, or at least what remains of it." Thor

stated, "We will be landing very shortly,"

"Cool," Ranma said to Thor as he went back into the cockpit.

Ranma stretched as he got out of his seat, "Man, I'm getting anxious to get

those adamantium bars so I can beat some sentinel heads in. I haven't had a good

fight in a while,"

"What about your sparring sessions against us?" Psylocke asked, "What, they

are not all that memorable to you?"

Ranma shrugged, "Not necessarily. It's just that with you guys, I hold back

because I don't wanna accidentally kill one of you guys. If you actually think I

really fight hard against you guys in sparring sessions, you've got another

think coming. Anyway, the point I'm getting at is with sentinels, I can go all-

out and have some fun. I haven't gone all-out in a fight since I was an Angel

fighting Angels and that was several years ago,"

"An Angel?" Jean asked.

"A divine being," Ranma shrugged, "Higher up the ladder than a human but lower

than a god. When I was an Angel, I'd probably be considered right in between

Thor and a regular human on this world,"

Both girls said nothing.

"You sound like you lead a very interesting life," Psylocke commented, "It

kind of makes me wonder just how interesting a life Jean or Iron Man or Mr.

Fantastic had in comparison,"

Ranma shrugged, "Who knows. I've had an interesting life, yeah, but there's

still so much more stuff I've yet to do,"

"Like what?" Jean asked.

"Like visit many other interesting worlds," Ranma shrugged, "Ryoga keeps

mentioning about how he has some interesting friends in some world and would

probably like to fight against me because they love to spar and such. Maybe I'll

go visit that world and see how things are. Or perhaps maybe I'll visit deep

into my world's past, like during the Meji period where the Hitokiri Battousai

played a huge role,"

"Hitokiri Battousai?" Jean asked.

"Some dude named Himura Kenshin," Ranma shrugged, "I dunno the details about

him but I'm vaguely aware that he would be an interesting person to meet. There

are other people that caught my eye that I might meet one day, provided I don't

decide to call it quits with adventuring and settle down,"

"Like what other people," Jean asked.

"You won't know of them so there's no real need to mention 'em," Ranma said.

"Just humor me," she said.

"Okay, there's also this dude named Vash The Stampede," Ranma said, "Heh,

that's a rather odd name. Vash Stampede...and having a middle name of 'The'.

There's also this dude named Tenchi Masaki. I heard he leads an interesting

daily life that would most likely remind me of the crap I go through when I used

to be young,"

"Himura Kenshin? Vash The Stampede? Tenchi Masaki?" Jean asked curiously, "And

you think our names are odd?"

Ranma thought about that for a moment and then laughed, "I guess you've got a

point,"

The cabin suddenly shook as the plane landed, surprising Ranma. Because he had

been standing, he suddenly found himself losing balance and falling forward

toward the girls where each of his hands found their way of landing on one of

Psylocke's and Jean's breasts.

Jean and Psylocke's eyes widened in surprise as they looked down at their

chest and realized Ranma was basically groping them. They looked back up and saw

that meek smile on Ranma's face.

"You're gonna slap me, aren't ya?" he asked.

"You pervert!" both girls said as the slapped him in the face. For some odd

reason, Ranma's innate AT Field didn't kick in as he was struck hard on both

cheeks.

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward the girls, "Y'didn't hafta do that, y'know. I

freaking stumbled,"

"That's besides the point!" Jean said, clutching at her chest.

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, "So aggravating,"

At that moment, now that the plane had landed safely, Thor entered the cabin.

"By Odin's beard, what happened to you?" Thor noticed two red palm prints on

Ranma's face, one on each cheek.

"I walked into a door," Ranma said glibly, waving a hand dismissively.

"What door might that be?" Thor asked, "We have no doors in this plane,"

"I don't care to talk about it," Ranma muttered.

"Very well," Thor said.

Captain America entered the cabin, "We're here. What the heck happened to your

face?"

Ranma muttered something incoherent that sounded like 'none of your business'

which made Captain America realize that Ranma didn't care to answer the

question.

"We are here," Captain America said.

Jean and Psylocke continued to glare at Ranma for a bit before they decided to

turn their attention of the Captain America.

"Let's go, I'll show us the way in since the main structure was destroyed. We

can get to the hanger from a secret service tunnel located close by," Jean said,

heading for the exit to the plane.

Everyone followed Jean out the plane.

The group watched Ranma as he did several katas with an adamantium bar. His

movements were fluid as he wielded the bar in a fashion as if he were fighting

multiple unseen opponents.

It was quite a sight to beheld as Ranma twirled the bar around, moving it in a

fashion that even their eyes had trouble following. After about a minute of

doing katas, he stopped and gave the group a smile.

"Y-you wield that adamantium bar like it's a bo staff, like you've wielded

such a weapon all your life," Psylocke commented.

Ranma smiled, "Thanks. Staff weapons like a bo staff or a spear or a lance

happens to be my weapons of choice. A bo staff is my favorite weapon and I

mastered it a long long time ago. Even though I've'n't wielded a bo staff in

ages, it comes back to me pretty quickly,"

"Do you intend to fight sentinels with an adamantium bar like a bo staff or

use them like javelins?" Captain America asked, "If you use it like a javelin,

there won't be issues concerning range like that of a bo staff,"

"I'll probably end up using 'em like javelins," Ranma shrugged, "We've got

tons of 'em here that, at this rate, I can use one for every sentinel and still

have a few dozen left over,"

"That's if you can defeat one sentinel per adamantium bar," Jean said, "But

the problem is that that will definitely not be the case,"

"Oh?" he asked.

Jean said, "Unless Apocalypse makes the fatal mistake of using older model

sentinels, the sentinels of nowadays have a fairly complex circuitry. They have

don't have a core location for you to throw your adamantium at that would

instantly render a sentinel useless. Think of a sentinel's circuitry like that

of a human body that doesn't need a brain or heart. There are no vital points

that can instantly render a sentinel useless,"

Ranma was surprised to hear that, "Isn't there some main processing unit

within a sentinel that I can aim for?"

Jean shook her head, "No. Sentinels used to have fairly delicate circuitry.

Back then, their internal circuitry was so delicate that if you manage to just

make a sentinel fall down or hit it with a very powerful force, the impact could

cause the circuitry to break. This is because the internal circuitry could be

jostled apart or break. You can break a sentinel from within even if you can't

break it from without,"

"Oh, so they're like Iron Man," Ranma grinned, "Shake him really hard and the

guy inside will pass out even though the armor will stay intact,"

Jean gave a shy smile, "In a way, yes. The problem is that used to hold true

for older models of sentinels, and I highly doubt Apocalypse would be stupid

enough to make such a mistake as to using older model sentinels,"

"With older model sentinels, was there a key location you can attack?" Ranma

asked.

"The head area or the chest area," she answered, "Either one. They both

contain delicate circuitry that rely on complementing components. It's very

similar to a human body where you can choose to take out the heart or the

brain,"

"Gotcha," Ranma said.

"With the sentinels of nowadays, there is no single location to attack

anymore," Jean said, "And not only that, because of past mistakes, a sentinel's

internal workings are reinforced to withstand great impacts as well as possess

redundancy components. If you destroy one key internal component, other internal

components would compensate said damaged component,"

Ranma said, "Impressive,"

"Sentinels are very advanced nowadays and are very hard to defeat," Jean

added, "Technology took a leap forward with the discovery of merging vibranium

with adamantium,"

"You mean the merging of vibranium merging with Secondary Adamantium to form

True Adamantium?" Ranma remembered what Beast said.

Jean nodded, "Yes. Because of it's discovery, the term adamantium refers to

what used to be considered 'True Adamantium' then. The point I'm getting at is

that the discovery jump-started a technological advancement. Unfortunately,

those technological advances also applied to sentinel technology,"

"What's the discovery?" Ranma asked, "How was it discovered to merge vibranium

and Secondary Adamantium then?"

Jean said, "I'm not too sure about the details. Beast knows more about it than

myself. All I know it has something to do with placing both components near one

another and warping space surrounding it. It's not even a perfected science on

how they can warp space in the first place but it works,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "Okay, back to the sentinels. If there's a chance that

these sentinels are very advanced and can't be defeated by my destroying a key

component by basically lancing 'em, that brings up the problem that I'm gonna

run outta adamantium bars to throw before I can take out all the sentinels,"

"That's correct," Jean said, concerned, "However, we've been in some very dire

situations before and managed to somehow beat the odds. Hopefully, we can think

of something to deal with the situation at hand,"

"How many components on these sentinels need to be taken out before a sentinel

will cease to function?" Ranma asked.

"Around five to six key components," Jean said, "Anything less and the

sentinel can still be of a threat in some way or another. What that means is

that you need to throw around five to six adamantium bars at a sentinel to

render it unable to attack anymore. You'll long run out of adamantium bars to

through before sentinels to take out,"

"Well, you have the Savage Land vibranium weapon," Ranma said, "Don't forget

that,"

"Right, but we need time for them to be mass produced," Captain America piped

in, "Our main priority is acquiring time. We need to slow down the sentinels

long enough so that Forge and Mr. Fantastic can produce a mass production

version of the weapon,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Well, if you wanna slow them down, how about you

guys have Forge and Mr. Fantastic build an anti-suppressor device? That way,

mutants can use their powers to slow the sentinels down,"

Captain America said, "You bring up a very good point but we've already

thought of doing that. It will take time to make such a device and time is

something we do not have. The time it would take to design, test, and mass-

produce a device for all mutants that need it would take away time we need to

make the Savage Land vibranium device,"

"Why not just make it together?" Ranma asked, "Maybe Forge can work on making

an anti-suppressor device while Mr. Fantastic works at the weapon,"

Captain America said, "Forge and Mr. Fantastic are exceptional inventers.

However, with creating a weapon that implements the use of Savage Land

vibranium, they need to pool their efforts together,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "I guess you've gotta point. The thought of creating a

device to project that metal-destroying radiation without being able to use any

form of metal in the first place to make the device must be quite a task. From

the way it sounds, you need to use stuff like organic crap to make the device,"

"Actually, they're using ceramics," Captain America stated.

"You mean the stuff that cover sandwiches to keep them from spoiling?" he

asked.

Psylocke gave a shy smile, "Um, that's saran wrap, Ranma. You're WAY off

there,"

"Oh," Ranma said, giving a meek smile.

Captain America cleared his throat, knowing now was not the time to be

laughing, "Until we can mass produce the weapon, we need to stall those

sentinels for as long as possible,"

"How long do you think that would be?" Ranma asked.

"I have no idea," Captain America said, "We can't rush them with something

like that,"

"Y'got a point there," Ranma said.

"What do you think we should do?" Psylocke asked, a bit worried.

Ranma looked at the bars for a moment, deep in thought. After a minute, he

slapped his head, "Duh! I'm such an idiot for not having noticed this!"

"What?" everyone asked him

Ranma held the bar in front of himself and grabbed one end of it. With a quick

yank, he broke off a portion of the bar. He held it out in front for the group

to stare in shock. Although Jean had seen Ranma bend and break adamantium bars

with his bare hands, it was still a shock to see it being done. Psylocke had

only heard about Ranma having broken adamantium but was seeing it for the first

time.

"By Odin's beard!" Thor gasped.

"My lord!" Captain America said. He remembered seeing Ranma shove adamantium

bars into the ground in front of The Vault back then, but it had never occurred

to him that Ranma himself could've actually broken those bars with his bare

hands.

Ranma smile, "I don't need to throw adamantium bars like a javelin. I can just

throw these adamantium chunks like rocks. They'll be just as effective. And with

every bar, I can get around twenty adamantium chunks to a single bar if I break

one into multiple pieces. I'll have plenty of chunks to throw to take out

sentinels. At six pieces needed per sentinel, I can take out close to three

hundred sentinels,"

"Provided you not miss once," Jean added.

"Don't worry about that, I have great aim," Ranma said, "I can throw something

and hit a cat from a thousand miles away if I wanted to,"

"What do you have against cats, Ranma?" Psylocke asked, "We also heard from

Beast about you throwing a rock at Zabu, Ka-Zar's animal companion, when you

were all in Savage Land,"

Ranma said, "Oh. Don't worry about it, I missed him because I wasn't trying to

hit him. If I wanted to hit him, I can hit him,"

"That's not what I was getting at," Psylocke sighed, feeling like she was

getting a headache, "Forget it,"

"Anyway, we've got nothing to worry about," Ranma smiled happily, "I've got

plenty of ammo this way to take out the sentinels,"

"I must say, you're extremely resourceful," Captain America said, finally able

to compose himself after having seen Ranma do what he did with adamantium, "You

display exemplary problem solving abilities. Your problem solving skills will

help you succeed in whatever obstacles you come across in the future,"

Ranma grinned, giving Captain America a double thumbs-up gesture, "Thanks for

the info,"

The way Ranma said it was so saturated with sarcasm that it instantly made

Captain America realized he should had made a fool of himself and say something

like that.

Ranma placed the adamantium chunk in his pocket as he picked up a large amount

of adamantium bars and placed them up over his shoulder. Everyone went about

collecting their share of adamantium bars for transportation to the plane. When

they collected all the adamantium, some carrying more than others, like Thor and

Captain America and Ranma, the group headed for the door that led to the secret

tunnel they traverse to get to the hanger in the first place.

"I'm glad we stopped by here to pick up the adamantium bars," Captain America

said, following behind Ranma, "This will definitely be the key element in

stalling those sentinels for long enough for Mr. Fantastic and Forge to finish

the weapon for mass production,"

"Who says I'm gonna stall," Ranma smirked, "Instead of slowing down the

sentinel attack, I'm gonna destroy those sentinels,"

"All the better," Captain America smiled.

"Ranma, um, the piece of adamantium...um..." Psylocke said, blushing a deep

shade of red.

Little did Ranma know, the way the adamantium chunk sat in his pocket

earlier seem like he had a massive erection. It basically looked like Ranma was

aroused and his package preferred to hang out on the right side of his pants.

"What the heck are y'getting at?" Ranma was oblivious.

"F-forget it," Psylocke turned away, busying herself with picking up a couple

of adamantium bars herself.

Ranma was sitting in the cabin with Jean and Psylocke. Both Jean and Psylocke

was aware of what Ranma had in his pocket but Psylocke had bothered to mention

something about it.

"Ranma, can I see that piece of adamantium you broke from the bar?" Jean got

an idea.

"Sure," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling the item out. He handed

it to Jean.

"Thanks," Jean smiled. She went about inspecting it for a moment before she

placed it off to the side, when Ranma's attention had moved onto looking out the

window.

He assumed that it was somewhere around half past four, judging by how low the

sun was over the sky. He couldn't help but be glad the sentinels were attacking

during day light and not attacking under the cover of darkness. It would make

the evacuation process easier since the power grid was still down and it would

be hell trying to evacuate an area that has no power being supplied to lampposts

and such.

"Penny for your thought," Psylocke stated.

"Huh?" Ranma looked toward her.

"You seem deep in thought," Psylocke mentioned.

"Yeah, I guess y'could say that," Ranma concurred.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she asked, wondering if it was something trivial or

something really important.

Ranma said, "I wonder how much damage might occur from this upcoming battle.

Hundred plus feet tall robots would definitely take up quite a bit of space,

especially with there being probably over a hundred of them,"

"That's got us all worried," Psylocke commented, "There's going to be an

immense amount of collateral damage. Hundred, perhaps even thousands, might

become homeless and a short period of time,"

"I know," Ranma said, his lips a thin line.

There was a good chance they would be fighting over land. To be able to take

the fight over the water seemed highly unlikely. Besides, it would probably be

moot because he would not be able to carry all those adamantium bars while in

flight and have his hands free. There was no way he could risk having Jean and

the others hang close by to supply him with the adamantium bars to be broken

into pieces and used as projectiles since, with such overwhelming odds, they

would last only a short time under the barrage of so many sentinels.

What worried Ranma most was how many innocent casualties there would be in the

upcoming battle and if he would be able to keep it to an absolute minimum. Or

better yet, not have a single casualty to begin with.

At that moment, Captain America emerged from the cockpit and into the cabin.

"I've got good news and bad news," Captain America said, "The good news, we've

determined that, at our current rate of velocity, we will be engaging the

sentinels at Montauk Point, a point located at the southeastern-most tip of Long

Island,"

"How's that good news?" Ranma asked.

"Montauk Point is sparsely populated," Captain America said, "If a battle were

to occur there, there will be fairly little collateral damage. And because of

its low population count, evacuating the area will be fairly easy if we move

fast enough,"

Ranma asked, "And what's the bad news?"

"There's a military facility located in that area," Captain America said,

"It's called Camp Hero. It's where the Montauk Project takes place,"

"What's the Montauk Project?" Ranma asked.

"It's a project created to study the phenomena encountered aboard the USS

Eldridge, a project known as 'The Philadelphia Project'," Captain America said,

"The Philadelphia Project is a series of experiments conducted by the US Navy

involving radar invisibility. The result of that experiment had effectively

ripped open a hole in space-time that allowed the USS Eldridge to teleport to a

different location. We have reason to believe that the sentinels might be after

the secrets in how the Philadelphia Project had been successfully conducted and

documented,"

"Go on," Ranma listened intently.

"If Apocalypse gets his hands on those secrets and learns how to recreate the

experiments, he will be able to teleport his entire army of adamantium sentinels

anywhere he wants," Captain America said, "We can not allow that to happen,"

Psylocke said, "That's strange, we know Apocalypse can teleport himself and

other things to whatever location he wants. How is this any different than what

he can already do?"

Captain America said, "Apocalypse can only teleport up to a certain amount of

mass through teleportation. Humans discovered in the Philadelphia Project how to

teleport a massive amount of mass. If he finds out how the Philadelphia Project

works, and can recreate it, his limitation of how much of something he can

teleport will be lifted,"

"Whoa," Ranma said, "That means that he can teleport all the sentinels to and

from wherever he wants,"

Captain America nodded, "Right. We can not allow those secrets to be revealed

to Apocalypse,"

"If this was discovered, how come we've never heard of something like this?"

Psylocke asked, "Teleportation of a large sum of mass is very beneficial to the

human race. How come the results of this Philadelphia Project was never made

public for use?"

Captain America said, "Fear. The US Government fears that the secrets

discovered would be exploited by someone like Apocalypse. To my knowledge, the

Philadelphia Project had been conducted with results back in the eighties. It

seems like its secret has finally been leaked out and Apocalypse knows about

it,"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Jean said, "Apocalypse have been known to find out

secrets and use them to his advantage like this before,"

"Whatever the case, the destruction of those incoming sentinels have just

become a top priority," Captain America said, "If Apocalypse is after the

secrets to the Philadelphia Project and how it works, then we must stop him,"

Ranma shrugged, "That's no different from what I originally planned. I have

every intention of destroying those sentinels in the first place. Hearing about

how he could be after the information about the Philadelphia Project doesn't

really change much,"

"This changes a lot," Captain America said, "The mission has now changed from

a seek-and-destroy objective to that of a protect-and-defend objective,"

Ranma shrugged, "Sounds no different to me,"

"How do you know about this Philadelphia Project?" Jean asked, "If it's a big

secret, do you have that much clearance to Top Secret information?"

Captain America nodded, "Yes. I know quite a lot about the US Government and

its secrets, but it's my duty to never reveal those secrets unless its an

absolute need-to-know basis. With this, it is definitely a need-to-know basis

which is why I am telling you this. We need to prevent Apocalypse from acquiring

the secrets to the Philadelphia Project,"

Ranma said,

"Yeah yeah, I heard you. I'll do my best,"

new stuff 9/9

Captain America looked out the window, "Come here,"

Ranma narrowed his eyes toward the man, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Can you please come here?" Captain America asked more politely.

Ranma walked over to the window. He peered out where he cause sight of a large

square tower. He noticed several small house-like buildings located nearby.

"You see that radar tower down there?" Captain America asked, "You don't see

the radar dish anymore though. That's Camp Hero,"

"Okay, what about it?" Ranma asked.

"Just northwest of that radar toward is the bunker where the Montauk Project

took place," he stated.

"You're confusing me, what's the difference between the Philadelphia Project

and the Montauk Project? I thought they were the same," Ranma asked.

"The Montauk Project was the investigation of the Philadelphia Project,"

Captain America said, "The Philadelphia Project, which used to be called the

Philadelphia Experiment, had nothing to do with teleportation. It was supposed

to be an experimentation of radar invisibility, like that of the Stealth Bomb

but for ships. During the experiment, we accidentally discovered large-scale

teleportation. The Montauk Project was the investigation of said experiment,

where the accident was recreated and fully understood,"

"Ah, now I get it," Ranma said, "An example would be something like a project

meant to create a new of power supply and accidentally creating an atomic bomb.

The Montauk Project would basically be the investigation of the accidental

creation of an atomic bomb and understanding it well enough to recreate it?"

"That's correct," Captain America nodded, "Anyway, Camp Hero is just for show.

It looks like a military base because it's a ruse. The base looks like a

military training center and such but it's really there to hide the entrance to

a bunker that is fully functional. The Montauk Project took place inside that

bunker,"

"Gotcha," Ranma said, "So what that means, I need to protect the entrance to

the bunker?"

"That's correct," Captain America said, "Can you do that?"

"Yeah," Ranma said.

"After we evacuate the community around Montauk Point, we will take up a

position right by the entrance to the bunker," Captain America said, "That way,

should a sentinel or two pass you, there's a chance we can stop it since Thor is

with us. However, should more than a few pass you, we will be easily

overwhelmed, even with Thor on our team,"

Ranma said, "Okay, I gotcha. Y'don't have anything t'worry about. I've got

plenty of ammo against the sentinels so I'm good to go,"

"That's good to hear," Captain America admiring Ranma's confidence.

The Montauk Lighthouse was a famous lighthouse that could be found at the

absolute southwestern-most point of Long Island. It stood alone at the ends of a

small peninsula and helped warn ships at night of landfall.

Because of its remote location, there was only a small community located

nearby that needed evacuating. The lighthouse needed evacuating right away, a

lighthouse-house compound where a family lived that operated the lighthouse

twenty-four hours a day year-round.

The plane came to a landing on a large open field behind the lighthouse. A

small group of young children came running up to the plane, unafraid, completely

fascinated with the visitors.

The children that lived in the lighthouse were home from school, and there

were other neighborhood children around as well, visiting the lighthouse because

it had a large open field where they could play a friendly game of soccer with

each other.

The group emerged from the plane and were greeted by fascinated stares. By now

a large group of around ten children, all the children that had been around at

the time, all under the age of ten, had gathered around the plane. Two adults

could be seen coming from the lighthouse as they crossed the massive open field,

heading toward the plane.

"Wow, it's Captain America and Thor!" one ten year old girl said in wide-eye

surprise.

Ranma nudged as Psylocke and Jean, "Kids don't recognize you guys? They only

recognize people like Thor and Captain America?"

"Not really," Psylocke said, "We're not well known. We tend to keep in the

shadows on what we do. Some people might recognize us from sometimes seeing us

working alongside the Avengers, but that's about it,"

Captain America stepped forward to speak with the group of children, to convey

to them of how they were there to take them to safety. The children seemed to

mind not one bit, especially when he mentioned that they would be taking the

children to safety in the plane.

When the two adults, a middle-aged man and woman, arrived, Captain America

turned his attention toward the couple. He was pretty sure that those two

resided in the lighthouse and that one or more of the children hanging around

were their offspring.

"C-Captain America, what brings you here?" the woman asked.

"We have come to evacuate this area," he answered, "Is there anyone else in

this area that needs evacuating,"

The woman did a quick headcount, "No. Everyone you see before you is here. How

come you evacuating need to evacuate this area,"

"There are reports of incoming sentinels and a large-scale battle will occur

here shortly," Captain America answered, "We need to get everyone here to safety

as soon as possible,"

"Okay, we will come with you," the woman said, "Um, well, can I go get some

things first?"

"No, we don't have the time," Captain America said.

"Okay, what should we do? Where should we go?" the man stepped forward to ask.

"Onto the plane with us," Captain America said, "We will fly you away from

here and to the community a few miles west of here. From there, we will help in

coordinating the evacuation of the entire community,"

"Okay," the woman said, heading onto the plane. The man and the children all

obediently followed.

Jean smiled slightly, "Man, I can't believe how easy it was for them to get

everyone to listen and follow their orders. If the X-Men tried to do that, it

would be like pulling teeth and the adults would be questioning everything we

do, even if it's all for their safety,"

"I guess being considered the world's mightiest Heroes does have it's

advantages," Ranma smirked.

Ranma watched as everyone boarded the plane. He wondered how happy the

children would be to fly in a plane that the Avengers ride and believed they

would have the time of their life. Kids were easy to please.

After everyone had boarded the plane, Captain America turned toward Ranma,

"Where do you want us to leave the adamantium bars for your use?"

Ranma shrugged, "I dunno. Where will those sentinels be coming from?"

Captain America gestured toward the west, "They will be coming from that

direction. Directly behind us is Camp Hero, the military facility where the

Montauk Project took place. After we evacuate the community, we will take up a

position at Camp Hero should a sentinel or two get pass you,"

"Gotcha," Ranma said, "I guess here would be a good place to unload the

adamantium,"

"Okay," Captain America said. He and the others disappeared into the plane and

brought out the adamantium bars and placed them close to where Ranma was. When

they were done unloading, Captain America gestured toward the horizon over the

water.

"Look," he said.

Everyone looked and caught sight of specks of dots in the far off distance.

They didn't need to be told that those specks of dots were the incoming sentinel

and would be upon their location within a few minutes.

"Are you going to be all right?" Jean asked, concerned.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. There's nothing y'need to worry about. Just do your thing

and evacuate the nearby community,"

Everyone headed into the plane.

Captain America paused to turn back toward Ranma, "Good luck, Ranma,"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "When I'm done dealing with the sentinels, I'll meet up

with you guys at Camp Hero,"

"Okay," Captain America headed into the plane.

Ranma stepped back and watched as the plane took off and headed west. After

the plane was gone, Ranma turned around to await the incoming sentinels, a bit

smile on his face.

"Heh, this is gonna be fun,"

Sentinels were created by a man named Bolivar Trask, a man that was obsessed

with the fear that mutants would one day enslave the human race. He was the man

that started the project many years ago, a project later taken over by his son

following his death.

Sentinels were lumbering, semi-humanoid robots at first. But after many many

revisions, they were no longer what its predecessors used to be and were now

considered extremely powerful robots.

Possessing immense strength and a whole slew of weapon systems as well as

flight, Sentinels were capable of eliminating mutants with vicious efficiency.

Now, the incoming sentinels were much much worse than the sentinels of then.

This was because the sentinels are made of metal virtually impervious to

physical attacks, where back then, were mostly made of steel which could be

easily broken through by mutants. Without something to deal with the adamantium

armoring, be it Savage Land vibranium or a Molecular Rearranger or an energy

projectile of cosmic powers like that of the Sun, there was little anyone can do

against such opponents.

The few things that anyone could come up with to deal with such sentinels were

rendered nearly impossible to be effective.

The Molecular Rearranger would be destroyed by the EMP generator weapon the

sentinels have. Be it just one EMP generator, it would still be near impossible

getting the device in close enough to take out just one sentinel.

The Savage Land vibranium weapon that was newly designed, while it would be

effective initially, needed time to be fully developed so it could be mass

produced. With only two of those weapons at hand, the users would probably be

able to take out several sentinels before they would be overwhelmed and the

device destroyed.

Should they finally be able to mass produce the Savage Land vibranium weapon,

they would not last all that long since they would be facing more sentinels at

once than they have ever dealt with before.

Without Ranma, the odds working against the X-Men and Avengers were so

overwhelming that there would probably be little to nothing anyone could do to

deal with them.

Ranma was, as Jean had put it, a living Deus Ex Machina. He would be the lone

deciding factor in a hopeless situation.

"What the heck did that mean?" Ranma scratched his chin, unbothered by the

fact there were more than a hundred specks in the horizon growing larger and

larger with every second.

After a moment, he shrugged and decided it was best that he get ready for

battle. He walked over to the stockpile of adamantium bars and picked one of the

bars up and proceeded to break them into pieces for throwing. He used the arm

speed he had developed from his Kashuu Tenshin Amaguriken to quickly break all

the adamantium bars into tiny pieces. Before long, there was a stockpile,

adamantium pieces that could easily be thrown, at least by someone like Ranma.

Ranma glanced up and noticed that the sentinels were probably around four to

five miles out to sea, flying toward his location at an intense speed.

"Okay, since the sentinels were basically humanoid in form, I need to hit them

in at least five key locations," Ranma said to himself, "I need to hit them in

areas where the heart, the brain, the liver, the left pectoral, and right

pectoral would be,"

Ranma noticed that because of the way the sentinels were flying, its entire

body angled in the direction it was flying, he would have to wait until they

were flying overhead to unleash his barrage of adamantium projectiles so he

would be able to hit the vital areas.

He would have to wait patiently for around one minute before over a hundred

sentinels would be flying right above him.

"Man, that means I need to throw over five hundred adamantium pieces within

the space of one second at moving targets," Ranma chuckled, "Talk about one

messed up task. If I wasn't here, how in the Hell would this world deal with

such a situation?"

He shrugged, not really caring to thing deep into that. He assumed that if he

wasn't here, the world would be able to deal with the problem at hand and

eventually overcome it. The only difference was in the casualties. With him

around, there was a chance no casualties would occur which was definitely a good

thing.

He looked toward the sky and did a quick count and noticed that there were at

well over a hundred sentinels coming his way. They all looked humanoid in form

like Ranma had expected. The only difference from that of a regular sentinels

was the fact that it they seemed almost silver in color as opposed to the

purplish hue regular non-adamantium sentinels were.

"Damn, it seems like the Navy miscounted," Ranma said, "There's gotta be at

least close to two hundred of them,"

It made Ranma realize that it seems like there were a lot more sentinels than

expected. It seemed like the possibility of there being only around a hundred

and forty sentinels had been shattered. And what was worse was that no one knew

just how many sentinels there were.

Ranma looked down at the stockpile of adamantium pieces he had. He smiled to

himself, glad that he still had enough to deal with all those sentinels, even if

it turned out there were a lot more sentinels than anticipated. If there were

more than three hundred sentinels, then that would pose a problem.

"Let's rock," Ranma smirked toward the incoming sentinels, "I'm gonna have fun

dishing out the hurt on you guys,"

He didn't care if the sentinels were made of adamantium or of steel or of

aluminum. A sentinel was a robot so he didn't have to hold back and could go

all-out taking them down in whatever fashion he wanted to.

Before the sentinels flew in close enough for Ranma to throw his stockpile of

adamantium pieces, several simultaneous energy beams came shooting out from the

foreheads of several sentinels at the front the incoming army.

"Oh shit!" Ranma quickly jumped out of the way, expecting a massive explosion.

To his surprise, when he landed and looked over toward where the energy beams

had landed, he realized the energy beams hadn't been aimed at him.

"What the?" Ranma said, noticed the energy beams were hitting the stockpile of

adamantium pieces nearby.

Ranma's eyes widened as he saw the stockpile of adamantium started to glow

bright white and suddenly begin to liquefy. When he saw this, something suddenly

occurred to him, if the stockpile of adamantium pieces were destroyed, he had

nothing to quickly take out many sentinels at once. Sure, he could fight them on

his own hands, but that would take way too long and many sentinels would be able

to get past him.

He quickly ran forward to stand in front of the energy beam, to use his body

as a shield. Unfortunately, his body seemed to do nothing to stop the energy

beam as the particles had no offensive effect, the energy particles like the way

a strong gust of wind folded around a building to continue on its path.

When the energy beam finally subsided, Ranma's eyes widened as he looked down

and saw the adamantium stockpile liquefy, the adamantium pieces melting into one

another and into a puddle a large puddle of goo.

He looked up as the army of sentinels flew overhead high above him, each

individual sentinel so large that they filled the sky, darkening the sky from

blocking out the sun.

"Oh my God!" Ranma realized, "The sentinels have built-in Molecular

Rearrangers!"

It had never occurred to Ranma that that would be the case. It had escaped

both his and everyone else's mind that that was a possibility. Everyone had been

so worried about trying to deal with the fact that it seemed like the EMP

generator had been duplicated and implemented that no one thought of the

possibility that the Molecular Rearranger would be duplicated and implemented as

well.

He quickly jumped out of the way instinctively when an energy beam of blue

shot out from nearby flying sentinels, levitating the liquid adamantium, up

where it seemed to absorb it onto its own body. It just so happened that that

energy was a retractor beam that could levitate and shift adamantium when it's

in its liquid form specifically for the reason of assimilation.

"Well I'll be damned, they assimilate adamantium," Ranma said in surprise.

Realizing that he had no time to lose and that he needed to stop all those

sentinels and that the best course of action to do was get their attention,

Ranma shot a massive ki-blast straight up where it hit one of the sentinels in

the legs. Because sentinel boosters were located in its feet, hitting one in the

legs while in flight would angle one of them toward the ground where the

boosters would end up flying it downward and into the ground.

A massive explosion erupted as the hapless sentinel was enveloped in the fiery

blast. The impact had been powerful enough that it sent the sentinel flying out

of control where it crashed on the ground several hundred feet away from where

Ranma was.

The impact of a massive adamantium sentinel over a hundred feet tall, weighing

probably within the vicinity of over a thousand tons, crashing on the ground

shook the ground with such ferocity that Ranma found himself barely able to stay

afoot from the aftershocks.

He sprinted the distance up to the sentinel as it was proceeding to get back

up to its feet, completely unscathed. Ranma knew that the ki-blast would have no

effect on the sentinel. All he had wanted to do was down one of them.

Ranma ran up to the foot of the sentinel and kicked it hard in its heel,

sending the goliath falling backwards and landing back down on the ground.

He jumped up and landed on the sentinel's shin and ran up the length of its

leg and torso, coming to a sliding halt over its chest area. He wasted no time

crouching down and punching a fist right through the adamantium armor plating

over the sentinel's chest.

"Heh, let's see you survive this," Ranma smirked, shooting a massive ki-blast

from his hand while it was still inside the sentinel.

Ranma was aware that, although the sentinel had adamantium armoring that was

virtually impervious to many convention and unconventional attacks, its internal

circuitry was not.

The sentinel twitched several times as its internal circuitry was incinerated

from within. The blast destroyed everything within its body, escaping from

within and out from mouth and eyes.

Without wasting time, Ranma ripped several adamantium pieces from the armor

plating. Because he no longer had the adamantium from the bars he had broken

into pieces, he needed to be resourceful. What better way than to use the

adamantium from the downed sentinels.

Afterall, Ranma was a very resourceful individual and the thought of doing

that had come immediately.

He began throwing hand-sized pieces of adamantium up toward the other

sentinels as they flew overhead, his aim true and hitting the sentinels' vital

areas, the thrown pieces of adamantium piercing completely through the

sentinels, managing to down five of them in the process. Unfortunately, before

he had a chanced to start downing more sentinels, the impact of the sentinels

crashing to the ground nearby forced Ranma have to stop what he was doing to

keep his balance.

"Fuck!" Ranma muttered under his breath. There were a few factors he had never

anticipated, like the fact that impact of a sentinel being downed was so intense

that it shook the ground very violently. He had never anticipated that the

Molecular Rearranger would've been duplicated and implemented as well.

When the ground stopped shaking underneath the sentinel he was standing on top

of, Ranma suddenly found himself on unstable footing as the sentinel he was

standing on top of started melting.

To his surprise, the sentinels flying overhead seemed to all have Molecular

Rearrangers and had taken the opportunity to melt their down brethren. It was

firing energy beams toward the sentinel he was standing on as well as the ones

that had been downed. Whether this was a program it followed or the fact that

they were smart enough to destroy the one form of weapon Ranma could use against

them, Ranma had no idea.

He watched as random sentinels seemed to use their retractor beams to levitate

the liquid adamantium up into the sky and absorb it onto their armor, as if to

further reinforce their armoring.

"What the fuck's going on here!" Ranma said, as he saw the sentinels getting

smaller and smaller as they flew away from him. It made him realize that it

seemed like Captain America was right, the sentinels had a mission and someone

like Ranma downing a few of them were of no consequence to them.

Ranma took to the skies, wings shooting out from his back as he quickly tried

to chase after the sentinels. He couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration

as he realize his plans were falling apart. It would only be a matter of time

before all those sentinels converged on Camp Hero, where Captain America and the

others were and Ranma had no quick means of disposing so many sentinels quickly

enough before they reach their destination.

As he was catching up with a sentinel and was about to hover down to land on

the sentinel's back as it flew, he was startled when the sentinel displayed

exceptional agility and came to a sudden halt in its flight as it turned around

toward him, swinging a massive forearms around and smacking Ranma as he flew in

wide-eye shock straight into it.

Ranma was unable to do anything but allow himself to be hit full force. He was

sent flying bodily downward toward the ground below where he crashed into the

terra firma with thunderous force, skimming the ground several times where he

came to a tumbling halt several hundred yards from where he had first hit the

ground.

When he was able to recover himself and get to his feet and look up, the large

group of the sentinels looked puny, continuing out flying away from him and in

the general direction of Camp Hero.

The blood drained from Ranma's face as he realized that even he had just been

outwitted. In a battle where possessing infinite strength meant nothing,

especially when being hit would send him flying where it would take him time to

catch up to the nearest sentinels, he was at a severe disadvantage. Without the

ability to throw adamantium pieces like projectiles, there was absolutely no way

he could take down more than one sentinel at a time.

Time was against him.

"This sucks!" Ranma said, taking to the skies again.

He flew at supersonic speeds to catch up to the nearest sentinel, ready for

anything. If the sentinel paused to attack him again, he would be ready to

counter attack. He would simply punch at whatever incoming attack there was and

let loose a massive ki-blast into the sentinel once he punched his hand through

the sentinel's armor.

"C'mon, let's see whatcha got!" Ranma sneered.

Expecting the sentinel to suddenly halt its flight again to attack a second

time, Ranma came to a hover as the sentinel did the same, stopping to face him.

However, to his surprise, a very blindingly bright light was emitted from the

sentinel's eyes, causing him to shield his eyes instinctively.

Ranma was struck again as the sentinel sung its forearm around, hitting Ranma

with tremendous force, sending him flying bodily back down toward the ground

below where he hit it and bounced a few times, skimming the ground like a rock

skimming over water.

Ranma found himself looking up toward the sky. He realized that not only had

he underestimated his opponents, but there was no way he was going to be able to

destroy all the sentinels before it was too late.

"This really sucks..."

Jean looked eastward toward the sky and gasped.

She and everyone else were standing around in the middle of the lone street

that crossed through the small community. None of them had even begun evacuating

the town before they realized the sentinels had somehow managed to get past

Ranma.

"My God!" Jean gasped as she saw well over a hundred sentinels high in the sky

heading in their general direction.

Psylocke came rushing up to her, "We're in big trouble!"

Captain America came rushing up to the two of them, a look of concern on his

face, "Ranma has failed in stopping the sentinels!"

"Where's Thor?" Jean asked.

They looked up where they caught sight of a lone figure flying in the air to

meet up with the incoming horde of sentinels. The group instantly knew that it

was Thor, that he had spotted the incoming sentinels as well and was flying up

to try his best at taking out as many as he could.

"Thor's up against impossible odds," Psylocke said.

Captain America reluctantly agreed, "I know, but that's the way Thor is. Not

only would fighting over around two hundred regular sentinels be overwhelming,

around two hundred adamantium sentinels is just crazy,"

"What do you think happened to Ranma?" Psylocke asked, "Did he fail or

something?"

"I have no idea," Captain America said.

The group watched as explosions ripped across the skies about a mile away as

Thor attacked the sentinels. They watched as a dozen sentinels converged on him

as a team as the rest continued on flying onwards, as if ignoring him.

"That's how the got past Ranma," Jean said, "While Ranma's dealing with some,

the rest went on ahead,"

"But I thought Ranma said he was capable of taking them down before that

happens," Psylocke said, "I know he has a tendency of lying, but why the heck

would he lie about something so important as that?"

The group gasped as they saw Thor easily overwhelmed as over a dozen sentinels

converged on him, shooting energy blasts at him. The blast seemed to have been

so powerful that it caused Thor to lose a hold of his Hammer, him and the Hammer

falling down to the ground below.

"Thor!" Captain America shouted in disbelief.

The group caught sight of a winged individual shooting through the air from

the west, catching both Thor and the Hammer in the process. It only took a

moment for them to suddenly realize that it was Ranma.

Ranma could be seen flying straight toward them, hovering down to where they

stood as they watched everything unfold in shock.

"R-Ranma," Psylocke said.

Ranma could be seen as he gently placed a disoriented Thor down on his feet.

It looked like he had took a serious beating and needed a minute to shake the

cobwebs from his head. Getting hit with multiple energy blasts that were capable

of destroying buildings, and getting hit by them all simultaneously, did that to

people like Thor.

When Thor looked up and realized that Ranma had saved him, he took a step

back, blushing. Ranma had been holding him when he saved him. Could he have been

holding him in a lover's embrace. He suddenly remembered the incident where

Ranma said 'I love you' to him.

Ranma knew what Thor was thinking about.

"I said that because it was a misunderstanding, fool," Ranma muttered, "I

thought it meant something like 'I'm sorry', but Logan played a joke on me,"

"I understand," Thor said.

"Said what?" Jean asked.

"The English words 'I love yo-'," he tried to say.

All of a sudden, a chicken came flying across the street and hit Ranma in the

side of the head. The group just stared in shock as they seemed to have

witnesses something incredibly odd.

"Fucking chickens!" Ranma muttered toward the sky, "Why does something like

that happen to me! Was I able to say it because I didn't understand what those

words meant in the first place!"

"Um, where the heck did that chicken come from," Jean looked around. From what

she saw, it looked as if the chicken was flying and flew right into Ranma's

head, like it was purposely aiming for him.

Ranma said, "I have no idea. I wasn't even able to figure that out when I was

God and it bugs the shit outta me,"

The group stared at Ranma with dumbfounded expression.

"Um, where did the chicken go?" Psylocke looked around and realized the

chicken that had just hit Ranma was now gone.

"Forget it," Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "It's beyond your understanding.

Shit, it's beyond even my understanding so I can't even explain it even if I

wanted to,"

He turned toward Thor.

"So, y'okay there?" Ranma smirked, handing Thor his Hammer, "Y'know what

happened to ya back there? Y'took some pretty nasty blows back there,"

Thor accepted his Hammer back, "I-I was overwhelmed. They wield so much power

that I can do nothing against them. However, I must try harder,"

Ranma quickly reached out and placed a hand on Thor's shoulder, admiring

Thor's tenacity. He had just managed to dent the armor of just one sentinel

before nearby sentinels reacted to his presence and teamed up on him. Because

they did not have to worry about hurting each other firing their weapons so

close to one another due to their adamantium armor. Their weapons could be used

freely in that case so it was very easy for them to team up on someone or

everyone.

"Stay here," Ranma said, "It's no use fighting against them. You have to take

them out one-on-one. I've taken out around fifteen of them so far on the way

here, but the moment you get close to them when there is another around, they

will team up on you. Just stay here, you'll just end up hurt,"

"Very well, under your advice, I shall stay," Thor said.

"What's going on?" Jean asked.

Ranma smirked, "What d'ya think? The sentinels got past me,"

"I thought you said-" Jean began.

"Didja know the sentinels have built-in Molecular Rearrangers?" Ranma said.

"They do?" all three of them gasped.

"Betcha y'never anticipated that, huh?" Ranma said, "They took out my

stockpile of adamantium with their opening attack. From what I gather, they've

been programmed to assimilate adamantium after they use their Molecular

Rearrangers to liquefy the adamantium,"

"How?" everyone asked.

Ranma shrugged, "I dunno. I think they used some kinda weird, whatcha call it,

a retractor beam. I saw the sentinel shoot out some kinda weird blue beam of

energy that levitated the liquid adamantium up and basically coat itself with

the adamantium,"

"I-I can't believe this is happening," Captain America said in astonishment,

"Built-in Molecular Rearrangers? The ability to assimilate adamantium? How many

more surprises are there?"

Ranma said, "Oh yeah, I also found out that they assimilate their own kind.

For every sentinel I defeat, the ones remaining would melt the adamantium and

assimilate it,"

"How many have you defeated so far?" Captain America asked.

"Twenty one so far," Ranma said, "There's still around a hundred and eighty

left though and they definitely put up a good fight,"

"A-a hundred an eighty left!" Captain America said.

Ranma laughed, "Yeah, pretty fucked up, huh?"

"How can you be laughing at a time like this!" Captain America shouted.

"Sorry," Ranma said, becoming serious again, "I guess ya have a point. I do

have good news though,"

"What news is that?" Jean asked.

"If you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone," Ranma said, "That means we

don't hafta worry about evacuating this town,"

"As good as it is to find out that we no longer need to evacuate people, that

doesn't really help us that much," Captain America said, "That actually makes it

worse. It's obvious they're on their way toward Camp Hero. If they won't attack

unless attacked, that means we can't lure them away from Camp Hero and prevent

them from getting their hands on the information concerning the Montauk

Project,"

Ranma scratched his chin, deep in thought, "Hm, y've gotta point there. That

definitely makes it worse,"

"What should we do, Ranma?" Jean asked Ranma instead of Captain America,

designated team leader.

"That's easy, we stop 'em from getting their hands on the information," Ranma

grinned.

"That's the whole point," Captain America said, "And how do you propose that?"

"We blow up Camp Hero and the bunker with it," Ranma smiled, "Think of it as

'If I can't have it, neither will you' kinda approach,"

"We can't do that!" Captain America said.

Ranma asked, "Why not? I believe it's gonna get destroyed anyway. It's better

that we destroy it and stop the sentinels from getting what they wanted. It's

your choice. However, y'better decide within, like, one minute or that place's

gonna be swarmin' with sentinels,"

Captain America's lips became a thin line.

"Tough choice, ain't it?" Ranma said, "It's your decision. I vote we blow the

place up,"

"I'm for Ranma's decision," Psylocke added, "I definitely don't like the

thought of teleporting sentinels. What we have to deal with now will be

exacerbated tenfold if they have the ability to teleport. They can strike and

disappear whenever and wherever they want if that happens,"

"I'm for Ranma's decision as well," Jean added, "It may be a hard decision,

but you can think of it as the lesser of two evils,"

Captain America was silent.

He looked at Thor, "How about you? What's your input?"

"I agree with Ranma," Thor said, "And as Jean mentions, it is the lesser of

two evils,"

Captain America shook his head, "Unfortunately, I will have to disagree with

all of you. With that technology, there is a chance we can use it against future

opponents. For all we know, we might find out where Apocalypse is and be able to

teleport an entire contingent of Heroes to his base to overwhelm his operation

at the source. And not lonely that, think of the good we could do. We can move

towns' worth of people to safety,"

"Hm, you've got a point there," Ranma said, "That kinda makes me wonder why

y'didn't do it for this town. Of course, since it isn't being attacked in the

first place, I guess the point is moot,"

"It's still a classified secret," Captain America said, "The public doesn't

know of it and we aren't positive of its effects on anything organic. But with

sentinels, since they're completely inorganic, they have nothing to worry

about,"

"Oh," Ranma said, "Okay, so what'dya suppose we do?"

"Use your powers, Ranma," Captain America said, "Beast mentioned to use how

you used your powers do miraculous things. Can't you do the same against these

sentinels?"

Ranma said, "Not interested,"

"What?" he asked, "Why not?"

"I'll help out, but I'm not using my God-powers," Ranma said, "Think of

something else. Quit relying on my powers and such and use your head for a

change,"

Captain America said, "I don't understand. Don't you think a situation like

this calls for something?"

"No," Ranma said.

"Are you being stubborn, Ranma?" Jean asked, "I know how you mention you don't

like using your powers, but can't you make an exception?"

"Nope," Ranma said.

"Then that leads us with no choice but to blow up the base," Captain America

said.

Ranma smiled.

"That's what I suggested,"

Ranma and the others arrived at the base ahead of the sentinels. Because the

sentinels didn't seem interested in attacking anyone unless attacked, the group

simply flew right by them at high speed.

"We're way ahead of the sentinels, but we've only got about a minute to

destroy everything," Captain America said reluctantly as Thor placed him down by

the bunker entrance as he hovered to the ground.

Jean hovered to the ground, gently using her telekinetic abilities to hover

Psylocke down safely. The two of them were glad that the built-in suppressors

didn't have a large area of effect that their powers were rendered useless.

"Ranma, can you hold them off while we evacuate the bunker?" Captain America

asked, "Keep in mind that this is a working underground facility with its own

power supply which is why it's still in operation despite the massive power grid

failure throughout most of the east coast,"

Ranma nodded, "I'll try, but there are no guarantees. I have nothing to throw

at them to break through the adamantium. I can blow the place up real easily

though, but we need to have everyone evacuated before I do that,"

"Use Thor's Hammer," Jean came up with an idea, "You can use that. And because

it isn't susceptible to the effects of the Molecular Rearranger you don't have

to worry about it being destroyed,"

"How does that help?" Ranma asked, "You only have one. I won't be able to take

out even a single sentinel with this,"

"Thor's Hammer is enchanted and comes back to him," Jean said.

"She has a point," Thor said, "I can do that. I can even laden it with an

extremely powerful electromagnetic field so that it could short out the sentinel

completely from within after the Hammer breaks through the adamantium armor,"

"You can do that?" Ranma was impressed.

"Aye," Thor nodded.

"The two of you will deal with the sentinels," Captain America said, heading

into the bunker, "Jean, Psylocke, and I will deal with evacuating the bunker,"

Ranma shrugged, "Okay, that sounds like a plan,"

The three of them headed into the bunker, leaving behind Thor and Ranma.

"Well, Thor, it looks like it's just you and me," Ranma smiled.

"W-what do you mean by that?" Thor stepped away.

"Fool, how many times do I hafta tell ya it was all a misunderstanding!" Ranma

muttered, "I thought I was apologizing in English and not saying I love yo-"

Ranma ducked as a chicken flew right by his head, missing him by inches.

Instead, it hit Thor in the side, confusing the large man as he looked down and

saw a chicken seemingly oblivious to what had happened, pecking at the ground

for food.

"Um-" Thor began.

"Don't even ask," Ranma sighed.

"Here they come," Thor gestured toward the skies. He turned toward Ranma and

handed him his Hammer, "Here you go,"

Ranma looked at the Hammer and noticed it glowed blue and crackled with

electricity, "Wow, that's pretty cool,"

"It is now charged to send out massive electrical currents with whatever it

comes in contact with," Thor said, "The moment it breaks through the adamantium

armor, the electrical surge will short out every electrical component from

within, rendering the sentinel useless,"

"Cool," Ranma said, "And you'll be conjuring the Hammer back?"

"That is correct," Thor nodded.

Ranma smiled, "Cool. Let's start blowing up sentinels then,"

Thor watched as Ranma took a few steps forward and launched the Hammer in the

general direction of the incoming sentinels, sending it flying through the air

with such speed that it struck a hapless sentinel almost the instant it left his

hands, breaking through its armor and shorting out its interior circuitry before

blowing through its back and through a sentinel flying above and behind it and

the sentinel above and behind that as well.

Ranma smirked as he noticed the sight of three sentinels falling down from the

sky a great distance away from where they were.

He watched as Thor held his hand skyward. He watched as Thor just stood there,

looking rather ridiculous, as he seemed to await his Hammer to return.

"It's not returning," Thor said, a sense of disbelief in his voice.

"What, did I throw it too hard?" Ranma asked.

"I think you did," Thor said.

As the sentinels got closer and closer, both Ranma and Thor couldn't help but

feel a sense of growing concern.

Ranma laughed, "Heh, ain't that unexpected. I accidentally threw the Hammer

too hard for the enchantment on it to take effect and come back to ya,"

"This is a dire situation," Thor said, "We are now without any form of offense

as well as I my Hammer,"

"Man, the Saotome Ultimate Secret Technique would work just great right now if

it weren't for the fact that we hafta stay here," Ranma muttered.

"The Saotome Ultimate Secret Technique?" Thor asked curiously, "It sounds like

some very powerful technique. What is it?"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Um, don't worry about it,"

He didn't care to explain that the Saotome Ultimate Secret Technique was

simply running away. Running away now would be good if it weren't for the fact

that they had to stay around and protect the bunker so that it could be

evacuated safely.

"It returns," Thor said in relief, spotting his Hammer flying back toward him

from far away.

Ranma breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. It would've sucked if I

accidentally, like, chucked it outta this galaxy or something,"

new stuff 9/10

"There is no need to throw the Hammer with all your might," Thor stated, "A

fraction of your strength is more than sufficient in breaking through the

sentinels' adamantium armor,"

"Okay," Ranma said, holding his hand out, "Let's try it again,"

Ranma took a hold of the Hammer and immediately launched it toward the

incoming sentinels, taking care to use much less force. To his delight, he

caught sight of three more sentinels falling from the sky.

He watched as the Hammer quickly did a U-turn in mid-flight and come straight

back into Thor's extended hand a few seconds later.

"Damn, six sentinels in two throws, that's pretty damn good," Ranma smiled at

Thor, "If you do the math, that's definitely more than two birds with one stone.

I guess that's what the get for bunching together so much,"

"Look," Thor pointed, "They are separating,"

Ranma looked up and caught sight of the group of sentinels spreading out their

flight patter, not longer remaining bunched together. Ranma couldn't help but be

impressed at that.

"Wow, their programming is pretty good to be able to realize they need to

spread apart to make my attacks less effective," Ranma whistled, "That's pretty

damn cool. The boomers or robots I've deal with aren't that smart in such

situations,"

Ranma threw the Hammer again, this time, only taking out one sentinel due to

their flight pattern. The sentinels were no longer overlapping one another as

they flew, spread apart so that they had around a hundred yards of space between

one sentinel and the other.

Thor said, "Sentinels have been constantly revised since their inception. It

is natural that they would become efficient weapons and take strategic

movements,"

Thor regarded Ranma, shocked at how easily he was destroying those sentinels.

Ranma had taken down a couple dozen sentinels before he met up with them and now

he had just taken out seven more within a span of around thirty seconds.

"Seven down and shitloads to go," Ranma commented with a smile.

Thor's lips became a thin line as Ranma's words just reminded him of the

overwhelming odds they were facing. Ranma did take out seven of them in only

around thirty seconds, but at that rate, it would take around ten minutes to

take all the sentinels and ten minutes is time the definitely do not have,

especially due to the fact that the sentinels were only around one minute away

and closing in fast.

When the Hammer flew back into Thor's hand, he handed it to Ranma and watched

as he threw it again. To Thor's surprise, Ranma looked completely unbothered by

the fact that they would eventually swarmed by sentinels.

"Eight down," Ranma grinned, "Man, these sentinels are so large that it's

nearly impossible to miss them,"

Ranma definitely had a point. The sentinels' very large size made them very

easy targets, even if they were a good distance away and closing in. But then

again, even if they were extremely small and at the same distance away, Ranma's

aim was so accurate that he would be able to hit them anyway.

At that moment, a large group of people dressed in lab coats could be seen

rushing out of the bunker entrance directly behind them. They all seemed to

keeping to an orderly fashion, pouring out of the bunker in a controlled state

as if under mind control. When they reached the outside of the bunker, it seemed

like the mind control was halted and people resumed their normal consciousness

and looked around in confusion, wondering how they ended up outside.

Captain America rushed out in front of the group and took on a position

directly in front of everyone as they seemed to be disoriented and confused as

to what was going on.

"Everyone! Quickly head that way and run as fast as you can and don't look

back!" Captain America shouted, "Your lives are in danger!"

Everyone looked at Captain America and instantly recognized them. Not really

knowing what they were supposed to do but trusting Captain America, they could

be seen rounding the side of the bunker and heading away from the incoming

sentinels.

"Damn, not even two minutes and the group's managed to get the evacuation of

the bunker underway," Ranma said, "That's pretty damn fast,"

Jean emerged from the bunker, backing her way toward Ranma and Thor. They

noticed that see seemed to be using her powers telepathically control everyone

and forcing them into evacuating the bunker. There was a look of strain on her

face as she seemed to be overexerting herself trying to keep everyone moving.

From the inside, Psylocke was doing the same. Captain America had used his

fame to his advantage. He managed to get himself and Psylocke and Jean into the

bunker without question, bypassing the security systems located deep within.

Once they were inside and underground, Jean and Psylocke were able to use their

powers to control everyone and have them file out.

Ranma, realizing that they needed time to get everyone to file out of there,

quickly turned to Thor.

"Looks like we need to stall for some time," Ranma said, "We need to get every

sentinel there coming after us,"

"It will be a difficult task," Thor stated.

"I know," Ranma said, leaping to the skies, heading toward the incoming

sentinels. Wings shot out from his back again. The sight of that was quite a

sight to behold. Ranma's wings seemed to magically grown right out of his back

as he takes flight and disappear into his back whenever he lands.

Ranma looked back and noticed Thor using his Hammer to take flight right

behind him not even a second later. It brought up Ranma's already high level of

respect toward Thor even higher. For a man whom had been beaten very seriously

before by the sentinels, he seemed not one bit reluctant in jumping into the

fray once again and most likely be beaten down once again.

"Just hit them and run away," Ranma said to Thor, "They'll attack you if you

attack them. Use your speed of flight to your advantage. We're not trying to

destroy them. We're trying to simply catch their attention,"

"I understand," Thor said, flying closely behind Ranma, "I am not used to the

hit-and-run approach to battle, but I will try my best,"

"You hafta do it," Ranma said, "If you don't get the sentinels' attention, the

others will simply continue on toward the bunker. They will only go after you

for a short time before they resume their mission and stop chasing you. Simply

attack them again and get them to chase you again,"

"Okay," Thor said, "I will exercise extreme guerrilla tactics,"

"Good," Ranma said, "That's what we need to do,"

Together, Ranma and Thor flew right into the middle of the fray. Thor

surprised Ranma as he came to a hover and held his Hammer high, the sky suddenly

becoming dark as clouds seemed to magically appear from out of nowhere.

Within a few seconds, a large portion of the sky was pitch black, making Ranma

come to a hover and wonder what was going to happen next. He knew Thor was up to

something but had no real idea what it was.

All of a sudden, hundreds upon hundreds of massive bolts of lightning rained

down from the sky above, striking out at all the sentinels at once. The

brilliance of all those lighting bolts occurring at once made Ranma shield his

eyes instinctively. When the brilliance died down, Ranma caught sight of Thor

hovering in the middle of around a hundred and seventy sentinels, every single

one of them facing his direction, a massive wave of adamantium gazing toward him

from everyone direction

"Damn," Ranma was definitely impressed. Even he didn't have some kind of

technique that could hit so many opponents simultaneously. That was one hell of

a show of power from Thor.

Thor could be seen taking flight away from the bunker, the sentinels

immediately chasing after him. Because of they way the sentinels were chasing

after him, it looked like Thor was being chased by a conical shape of adamantium

sentinels.

Ranma watched in astonishment as hundreds of lasers and energy blasts and

missiles and other various forms of projectiles were fired upon Thor, Thor doing

his best to dodge them. Thor managed to dodge most of the projectiles for around

ten seconds before he was finally struck once by a laser blast and sent

spiraling down toward the ground far below, being struck with a barrage of

projectiles as he fell.

"Shit!" Ranma said, realizing that he should be doing something as well

instead of just hovering there watching everything unfold.

He quickly darted across the sky in the direction of Thor, on an intercept

course to catch Thor as he spiraled down from the sky. Flying past all the

sentinels currently pursuing Thor, Ranma caught he large man moments before he

was struck by another barrage of projectiles.

"Thank you," Thor said, trying to catch his breath, his face wincing in pain.

"You're one tough guy," Ranma smirked, "I'd figure you'd've been knocked out

by such attacks,"

Thor said, "I probably would've had you not intervened. I'm grateful for your

help,"

"Can you fly?" Ranma asked, still carrying Thor.

Thor nodded as he extended his Hammer in front of him and took flight again,

slipping out of Ranma's hand. The rate of recovery of Thor made Ranma smile. It

reminded him of Ryoga in some ways, tougher the hell and always able to get up

and take more punishment than Ranma originally believed.

Ranma was hit in the back, sent flying bodily downward, unable to recover in

time to assume flight. He ended up smashing against the ground with thunderous

force, bouncing a few times until he came to a sliding halt.

"Ranma!" Thor called out in concern, quickly flying down to where Ranma was,

dodging projectiles in the process.

"Damn, it feels like I'm trying to fight against hundred of Angels," Ranma

muttered, climbing to his feet. He called out to Thor, "I'm fine. Just worry

about yourself,"

"Aye," Thor said, altering his path of flight to swoop upward toward the skies

against to lure the still-pursuing sentinels.

Ranma jumped out of the way as projectiles intended for Thor struck the ground

nearby. The moment he landed on his feet, he let loose a massive hurricane blast

spiraling toward the air. He was aware of how far away he was from the bunker

and knew he could unleash a good portion of his power.

A hurricane blast enveloped Ranma, spiraling up into the skies, expanding at a

rapid rate, growing to well over three hundred feet in diameter. All the

pursuing sentinels after Thor ended up getting caught up in the blast. When the

blast subsided, all the sentinels hovered in place, completely unscathed, their

attention on the new threat.

Ranma flipped both middle fingers up toward the sentinels, "Yeah, I made that

hurricane blast. Whatcha gonna do about it?"

A barrage of projectiles were fired from all the sentinels toward Ranma.

Ranma quickly somersaulted backwards to safety. He continued to somersault and

flip backwards as the barrage continued to follow after him. He managed to avoid

being struck by all the projectiles for almost a good minute before he was

struck in the chest in mid-somersault and sent crashing to the ground.

Ranma got up to his feet and looked in the direction of the bunker and caught

sight of Psylocke, Jean, and Captain America leading everyone away from the

bunker. He saw Captain America pause to look toward Ranma, the two of them

making eye contact. A silent message seemed to have gone between the two of them

as Ranma realized that the bunker was now safely evacuated. That meant the

bunker could be destroyed.

"Thor, the bunker's evacuated, go destroy it!" Ranma shouted out right before

a sentinel landed right on top of him, stomping him deeply into the ground.

"By Odin's beard!" Thor said, hovering and gazing down at where Ranma used to

be, a sentinel standing over him.

He quickly banished his shock and turned his attention toward the bunker where

he saw the group and everyone from within the bunker running away, never looking

back.

Realizing the sentinels' attention were on Ranma, Thor knew he had only a

small window of time to make his break for the bunker and destroy it before it

was too late.

He flew over to here the bunker was, ignoring the bone-jarring sounds of

sentinels stomping on the ground with vicious force. He knew Ranma would not be

hurt, but even so, he couldn't help but feel concerned for Ranma's well-being.

Hovering down and landing right over the entrance to the bunker, Thor raised

his Hammer toward the sky with both hands, gripping the handle tightly.

The Hammer started to glow a brilliant shade of blue, crackling with energy.

He then struck the Hammer down on the ground below his feet. All of a sudden,

the ground shook violently as the bunker below was incinerated by a massive

electrical storm from within, brilliant blue light shooting out from the

entrance.

The bunker exploded from within, the ground below Thor's feet caving in,

bringing Thor down with it as a crater suddenly appeared, sagging downward and

expanding until Thor found himself standing in the middle of a hundred foot

crater.

"It is done!" Thor said, "The structure below me is no more!"

He looked over where he saw the group of sentinels stop what they were doing

to looked over toward Thor, as if sensing their objective suddenly lost, their

mission a failure.

As they stood there, a few sentinels suddenly toppled over. This was because,

Ranma, in the middle of the group of sentinels, continued to fight on, punching

a fist through a few sentinels' feet and shooting ki-blasts into it, destroying

them from within.

After a few more were felled by Ranma, the sentinels stopped standing there as

they seemed to have relayed a message back to their base or master and had

acquired a new objective.

The sentinels suddenly took to the skies, flying East.

"Now where the heck are they going?" Ranma scratched his head, gazing up at

the retreating sentinels.

He looked over to where Thor was and caught sight of him flying over to

regroup with Captain America, Psylocke, and Jean. He wondered what he should do.

He believed that the sentinels, realizing their mission has failed, might be

heading back to base and that this might be his only chance to follow after

them.

He quickly sprinted over to where the group was, "We should go,"

"Go where?" Captain America said. He had been congratulating Thor on a job

well done with the destruction of the bunker.

"After the sentinels," Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "They might

lead us to Apocalypse's base,"

"Very well," Captain America realized, "This is an opportunity we mustn't let

slip by. There is a good chance we might be led to the base if we follow them

closely,"

Ranma grinned.

"Heh, let's go then. And so begins yet another mission,"

Ranma and the others quickly hovered down and landed by the plane. The plane

was right were it had last left off, in the middle of an open field in the town

that had originally been about to evacuate. There was a group of police cars and

officers surrounding the vehicle, wondering what to make of it. No one in the

town was aware that the group had originally landed there to begin to process of

evacuating the town, only to have to quickly change their plans when it was

realized that the sentinels were on their way to Camp Hero.

Sentinels flew overhead and everyone gathered around the plane seemed to be

gazing up at the sky. They barely even noticed when the group hovered down and

landed by the entrance to the plane. Thor had been carrying Captain America

while Jean Psylocke. Ranma flew by himself.

The group had followed closely behind the sentinels as they flew Eastward

toward the Atlantic Ocean. Not knowing exactly where the sentinels were headed

except under the assumption that it was probably Apocalypse's base, they opted

to stop by and pick the plane up and fly in the plane the rest of the way.

"C-Captain America," one officer recognized the men, "T-Thor,"

Everyone turned their attention toward the group that had just arrived.

"What's going on?" someone asked the group, "Are those sentinels flying

overhead?"

"Everyone, please leave the area," Captain America told everyone, "We are on

an urgent mission and need everyone to clear out so no one risks getting hurt

during our takeoff,"

Everyone looked at one another for a moment before they began dispersing.

"C'mon, let's hurry up and follow them," Captain America entered the plane,

Thor following closely behind.

"Good job on evacuating the bunker back there," Ranma said, smacking the rear

ends of Psylocke and Jean as they boarded the plane.

Both girls yelped in surprise at feeling their bottoms smacked in such an

sexist fashion. They stopped to glare at Ranma as he walked by them, complete

oblivious or unbothered by their glaring.

Realizing they had no time to lose, they quickly followed Ranma into the

plane. They would give him a piece of their mind once they were in the air and

following behind the retreating sentinels.

Ranma sat down in the seat and stretched.

"About our rear ends," Jean started off.

"What about them? They look fine," Ranma said.

"T-thanks," both Jean and Psylocke blushed.

"Waitaminute! That's not the point!" Jean quickly said, "We don't appreciate

you doing something like that, smacking our rear ends like that,"

"Okay, I'm sorry," Ranma said, "It's not like I whipped it out and put it

inside you from behind or nothing. It's just a friendly smack. Jeez,"

Both girls blushed a deep shade of red as the sudden image of them getting a

surprise in the form of sexual penetration entered their minds.

Ranma's eyes widened in shock as he pointed toward them, taking a step back,

"You perverts! You're thinking of something like that!"

"You're the one that brought it up!" Psylocke shouted toward Ranma, wondering

how Ranma seemed to have gotten them both into such awkward positions.

"Look, it was just a friendly smack," Ranma said, holding his hands

defensively, "No need to misunderstand or nothing. I was merely congratulating

you guys on a job well done,"

"So how come you didn't smack Thor's and Captain America's?" Jean asked,

wondering why in the world she was asking such a question in the first place.

"Why the hell would I wanna smack a guy's butt?" Ranma asked, "You're nuts to

not see the reason,"

"Argh! Why are we talking about this in the first place?" Jean shouted in

annoyance, "We were just in the middle of stopping an army of sentinels from

storming the bunker by destroying it, and now we find ourselves on the plane

talking about smacking people's rear ends,"

"Because you're the on that started it, saying something like 'About our rear

ends'," Ranma stated.

"That's because you started it all with- Y'know what? Forget it!" Jean sighed,

sitting down in her chair, "It's not even worth arguing against you, Ranma,"

Ranma shrugged, "Fine by me," He sat down and leaned back in his chair,

closing his eyes, "If anyone needs me, I'll be sleeping right here,"

"How can you sleep at a time like this?" Psylocke asked, "You JUST came from a

massive battle with around two hundred adamantium sentinels!"

"What, is there something wrong with going to sleep now?" Ranma asked, "Is

there some kinda etiquette to when I should be sleeping?"

Psylocke asked, "There's no etiquette or anything, but aren't you at least one

bit anxious at what's to come?"

"Anxious? No. Curious? Yes," Ranma said, "But what else is there to do? We are

currently following sentinels toward what could be Apocalypse's base. It will

probably take some time, time I can spend sleeping,"

Psylocke said, "That's not the point!"

Ranma reached down into his pants and felt around.

"What are you doing?" Jean asked.

"Just checking to see if I'm a guy," Ranma said. He grabbed onto something,

"Ah, there it is. Y'know what that means? I'm a guy...and as a guy, I don't feel

like there's a need to fill silence with chit chat. I'd rather do something like

sleep or silently sit to myself,"

"Why you chauvinistic, chauvinistic, and chauvinistic-" Psylocke said.

"Ranma, you are completely tactless," Jean said, "Do you know that?"

Ranma ignored her, closing his eyes to go back to sleep.

"Do you hear me?" Jean said, getting angry, more angry now.

Ranma continued to ignore her.

"Ranma," Jean said.

"Holy crap! What now?" Ranma opened his eyes, "Do you LIKE nagging? You're

nagging me. You're married and have a husband! That's what he's for, for you to

have someone to nag to!"

"Oh my god! You didn't just say that!" Jean said.

"What do you want from me?" Ranma asked.

"I want you to..." Jean began, wondering what did she want from him, "I want

you to..."

Ranma said, "You don't even know why you're arguing with me in the first

place,"

Jean looked over toward Psylocke for help but Psylocke had nothing to say.

"Are you arguing with me for the sake of arguing with me?" Ranma asked

curiously, "Do you enjoy being angry at me? I already apologized for what I did.

What else do you want from me?"

"Maybe an apology isn't good enough," Jean said.

"So what do you want me to do, volunteer at a soup kitchen?" Ranma asked,

"Will that make things better?"

Jean glared at Ranma.

Ranma regarded Jean for a moment, "Man, I should press your Big-O pressure

point right now. That'll definitely get you off my back,"

"Big-O?" Jean asked, curious.

Psylocke wondered where she had heard that before. After a moment, she

remember Ranma mentioning something about that, that it was akin to the orgasmic

sensations she felt when Ranma had cracked her back and joints a while back but

better.

"Hey, does the 'O' in Big-O stand for-" Psylocke began.

"Yep," Ranma said.

"Stand for what?" Jean looked at Psylocke. She noticed this deep shade of red

on Psylocke's cheeks and wondering what it meant.

Ranma said, "Forget it. It's not important,"

"It stands for 'orgasm'," Psylocke stated, "He can press some kind of pressure

point that cause that to happen, right, Ranma?"

At that moment, Captain America entered just as Jean shouted in surprise.

"Orgasm?" Jean's eyes widened, "Y-you can give me an orgasm?"

Ranma shrugged, "I don't care if you believe me or not,"

"Um, did I enter at the wrong time?" Captain America asked, very curious as to

what kind of topic they were talking about that made Jean say that word.

Ranma turned toward Captain America, "Actually, you came at the perfect time.

What's up?"

"I just got off a line with the base," he answered, "I've given them the

information of what we've found out with our encounter with the sentinels, that

they have built-in Molecular Rearrangers and assimilate adamantium,"

"What did they say?" Ranma asked.

"What else? They're shocked," Captain America said, "I've also told them that

we are currently following after retreating sentinels and believe they might

lead us to Apocalypse's base,"

"And?" Ranma asked.

Captain America said, "They're getting ready to scramble. Should we find out

the base's location, they will be ready to sortie and scramble to that location

to meet up with us,"

"I thought this is some kinda scouting mission," Ranma said, "I thought we

were going to just find out where the base is and head back or something like

that,"

Captain America shook his head, "Whatever gave you that idea? We need to

strike fast and strike hard,"

Ranma shrugged, "Whatever. Be sure to relay a message back to base and tell

them I don't want Asuka tagging along with them,"

"Will do. Also, I've also got good news," Captain America said, "The Savage

Land vibranium weapon has been completely and is now being massed produced. It

has a failsafe feature implemented to allow us the luxury of using it without

fear of it ending up in the wrong hands,"

"That's good to hear," Psylocke said, "Finally, some good news,"

"Hey, we did stop them from acquiring the ability to teleport," Ranma said,

"What, you don't consider that good news?"

"That too," Psylocke added.

"The weapons have been created and handed out to everyone," Captain America

said, "We now have a weapon to fight against these adamantium sentinels. All we

need is the location of Apocalypse's base to put these weapons to good use,"

Ranma smiled, "While, it seems like things are finally coming together. You

now have a device to fight against the sentinels,"

"No small thanks to your help in getting the Savage Land vibranium," Captain

America had to add, "Had you not stopped Hulk from destroy the mine as Beast had

mentioned to me, we would never've gotten it for us,"

"Yeah, I'm awesome," Ranma smiled.

"And modest I might add," Psylocke said sarcastically, smirking.

Captain America cleared his throat, "Us stopping the sentinels from acquiring

the ability to teleport was just as important. Because it takes around a minutes

for the Savage Land vibranium weapon to break down the molecular bonds of

adamantium, teleporting sentinels would've made it impossible for us to keep the

weapons trained on them long enough for it be to of use.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the cockpit, "I guess we have Thor to thank for

that. He was the one that caused the destruction of the bunker. And speaking

of which, d'ya think there are gonna be any consequences to us destroying the

bunker?"

Captain America said, "Yes, most likely. But it was something that needed to

be done. Had they succeeding in acquiring teleportation, we would've been in a

lot of trouble. That would've made Apocalypse's army basically unstoppable since

it could very well render our Savage Land vibranium weapons useless,"

"Well, I'm glad we stopped that from happening," Ranma said.

"I've also got more good news," Captain America smiled, turning toward Jean

and Psylocke.

"What kind of news?" Jean asked.

"Good news," Ranma said, "He just said it,"

"I know that! I mean what kind of good news," Jean said, wondering if Ranma

was picking on her.

Captain America said, "Now that the Savage Land vibranium weapon has been

finished and mass produced, Forge and Mr. Fantastic has started concentrating

their efforts at developing an anti-suppressor device to deal with those built-

in suppressors the sentinels possess,"

"That's excellent, how far along are they?" Jean asked, "It'd be nice to be

able to use our powers against the sentinels, even if it is to simply distract

them or such,"

"They said they should have a prototype really soon," Captain America said,

"They never gave a ballpark time though,"

"With Forge and Mr. Fantastic, they're definitely the two that will get the

job done," Jean stated.

"You think he's aware you guys have the weapons developed?" Ranma asked, "You

think that's why he was after teleportation in the first place?"

Captain America shook his head, "It's doubtful. He was probably after this to

strengthen his army and we happened to have been able to stop them for once.

There could also be a chance that he will go about trying to strengthen his army

in another way after this set-back. For all we know, the sentinels could be on

their way over the Atlantic Ocean to go to Wakanda to acquire that country's

technology,"

"Wakanda?" Ranma asked.

"Y-you don't think that could be the case, do you?" Jean asked in concern.

"I've already contacted Black Panther of the possibility," Captain America

said, smirking, "He says he hopes they try and attack Wakanda so he could show

off his country's firepower,"

"Black Panther?" Ranma asked.

"Wakanda is a country in Africa," Captain America said, "It is far and beyond

the most technologically advanced and wealthiest country in the world and

possess immense firepower. Black Panther is that country's king. He used to be

part of the Avengers for a while but eventually left to resume his role as his

country's king,"

Ranma said, "Do you think the sentinels will be heading for this Wakanda

country? Do you think they're going to be after their technology and firepower?"

"I'm not too sure," Captain America said, "But with a country like Wakanda,

there's a very good chance that it can repel whatever Apocalypse throws their

way. Unlike a bunch of Heroes trying to take on these sentinels, a country

taking them on is a completely different picture,"

Ranma smiled, "Wow, let's hope this happens. I wouldn't mind seeing some

fireworks,"

"Whatever the case, I believe that the sentinels will not be attacking

Wakanda," Captain America said, "The army of sentinels Apocalypse have created

is overwhelmingly powerful, but a country like Wakanda is all the more

powerful,"

"Oh," Ranma said.

"I hope the sentinels are heading back to their base," Captain America said,

"This has been going on for too long. We need to strike before his army grows

any more powerful than it already is. Even though you've taken out around forty

of those sentinels, there could be the chance that Apocalypse is actually

manufacturing more sentinels as we speak,"

"Well, we can't strike him unless we know where he is," Ranma smirked, "All we

can do is wait for Apocalypse to make a mistake and reveal the location of his

base,"

"That's true," everyone seemed to agree.

Asuka sat on a couch in the rec-room, bored. The television in front of her

was on but she wasn't paying all that much attention to what was on the screen.

All she knew it was some stupid talk show about people coming on getting a make-

over and then seeing how others reacted to the new change. American

entertainment was rather pathetic.

She heard billiard balls striking up against one another behind her, Logan and

Cyclops busy playing pool to pass the time. They didn't talk to one another,

playing silently.

How can you not feel awkward when there is nothing but silence as you play,

Asuka couldn't help but wonder. How come they don't fill the silence with chit

chat? Perhaps it's a guy thing she didn't understand.

She caught sight of Beast enter the room. She watched as Beast said something

to Cyclops and Logan before the two of them left, leaving behind Beast.

"How's everything going?" Beast smiled at Asuka.

"Okay, I guess," she shrugged, "How about yourself? I noticed Cyclops and

Logan rushed out of here in a hurry,"

Beast said, "I'm doing fine. I told them that a prototype of the anti-

suppressor is finally complete and Forge and Mr. Fantastic would like them to

see them down in the laboratory, to be their ginea pigs in a sense,"

Asuka was impressed, "Wow, Forge and Mr. Fantastic are really quick inventors.

Didn't they start trying to work on it just a short while ago?"

Beast nodded, "Logan picked up a suppressor from the auction house back in the

Philippines a while back. He had put it aside back at the school and forgot

about it until now. He went back to the school and got it. It was among the

ruins but he managed to find it,"

"When did Logan do that?" Asuka asked.

"Right around the time when Ranma and the others left for Montauk Point,"

Beast answered, "Anyway, the suppressor he brought back helped out greatly in

producing an anti-suppressor. Even though it was broken from during the

operation at the auction, Forge fixed it and simply reverse-engineered it and

found out how it works and a way to negate its effects,"

"That was not even around an hour ago," Asuka said in surprise, "He can work

that fast?"

"You'll be surprised at how fast Forge and Mr. Fantastic can invent things if

they work together," Beast smiled.

"Speaking of Ranma, have you heard any word of him?" she asked curiously, "Of

him and the others I mean,"

Beast smiled, "Actually, that's what I came here to tell you. Ranma and the

other have successfully repelled the sentinels at Montauk Point,"

"Really?" Asuka asked, surprised.

"Ranma

"At the current moment, Ranma and the others are pursuing the sentinels,"

Beast said, "They're currently around eight hundred miles East from Long Island

over the Atlantic Ocean,"

Asuka asked, "They're pursuing them? Some got away?"

"A majority of them got away," Beast said, "Ranma and the others repelled

them. They are chasing after them hoping that the sentinels might retreat back

to Apocalypse's base. If things work out, we will soon know of Apocalypse's base

of operations,"

Asuka said, "That's rather smart, following the retreating sentinels,"

"It was Ranma's idea," Beast said.

Asuka shrugged, "I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Ranma, as stupid as he may

be, is kinda smart,"

"Um, I'm not too sure I understand what that means," Beast gave a shy smile,

"That statement kind of contradicts one another,"

"Ranma's smart, even though he does some really stupid things that seem to

question just how smart he may be," Asuka said.

"I understand," Beast chuckled.

"So, when do we take off for Apocalypse's base?" Asuka asked, "I assume we're

all going to meet up with Ranma and the other's at the base after they find it?"

Beast wondered how to break the news to her gently.

"Um, Ranma expressed concern for your safety and requested that we not let you

come along with us," Beast said.

"What? He said that?" Asuka was surprised.

Beast nodded, "Yes. He's looking out for your welfare which is why he doesn't

want to risk you being in danger if you came along with us,"

Asuka's lips became a thin line, "So...I can't come with you?"

"I'm sorry," Beast said sadly, "I know it comes as a disappointment, but it's

for your own good,"

Asuka said nothing.

"Hey, guys, look," Ranma said, reaching backwards to nudge at either Jean or

Psylocke as he looked out the window.

When his hand grabbed onto something soft and round, he gulped.

He reluctantly turned his gaze from the window and toward his hand and winced

as he realized what he saw confirmed his fears. He had accidentally grabbed one

of the girls' breasts, namely Jean's.

"You did that on purpose!" Jean shouted, blushing a deep shade of red,

slapping Ranma's hand away with one hand and slapping him in the cheek with her

other hand.

Ranma glared at Jean for a moment. He then shrugged, realizing it had been his

fault. He turned toward Psylocke, "Check this out,"

"Y-you're not going to grab me?" Psylocke clutched toward her chest.

"No!" Ranma said, "Um, not unless you want me to,"

"I don't think so!" she shouted toward him.

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "That's not important. Anyway, I think you

should look out the window,"

Psylocke was a bit skeptic but eventually gave in to curiosity and leaned over

and looked out the window right near Ranma. Doing so, she caught sight of a

large tropical island surrounded by trees with a mountain in the middle of it.

It looked to be around two miles in diameter and was located out in the middle

of ocean. This was definitely something unnatural, seeing an island out in the

middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

"Jean, get a load of this," Psylocke said, turning toward Jean.

Jean, curiosity getting the better of her, scooted toward the window to look

out. This resulted in her leaning right by Ranma, her breasts by his face. Ranma

found himself able to see her cleavage up close and personal.

"My, aren't we a tease?" Ranma said, grinning, "Is this some kinda new lap

dance?"

"Ranma!" Jean shouted at Ranma, quickly pulling back, clutching at her chest.

"Hey, it's not like I grabbed 'em and did honking noises or nothing," Ranma

said, "You're the one that shoved 'em in my face,"

Jean glared at Ranma.

"Dontcha get tired of constantly glaring at me?" Ranma asked, "You don't have

heat vision so you're not gonna be able to burn a hole through me. And even if

y'did, you're not gonna be able to burn a hole through me anyway,"

Jean snorted in annoyance as she walked around the seat and over to one of the

empty windows and looked out.

"Why am I the bad guy here?" Ranma asked no one in particular.

"I think that's Apocalypse's base," Psylocke commented.

"Since when did he have a secret base out in the middle of the Atlantic

Ocean?" Jean said.

"I dunno, maybe because it a 'secret', thus the name, 'secret base'," Ranma

stated.

Jean glared at Ranma.

"Go ahead, glare more daggers at me," Ranma said, "I'd better not sleep

tonight because, oh no, Jean's glaring daggers at me,"

Jean said in annoyance, "What I meant was that the existence of the island

isn't know. It's impossible that such an island was never discovered and never

charted on maps,"

Psylocke said, "I think it might be a floating island. It could be floating on

the ocean waters and isn't an actual island. It could be a mile-wide floating

vessel that happens to look like an island,"

"That seems more plausible," Jean said.

The group watched as what looked like a massive door opened on the side of the

mountain located in the middle of the island. After the door seemed to have

finally opened completely, they could see sentinels hovering down and

disappearing into that opening.

The group suddenly felt the ship tilt forward as it initiated a dive toward

the island. The watched as the ship seemed to circle around the island, as if

looking for a landing spot.

When they spotted a small open clearing in the dense forest that littered the

island, the three knew they would be landing there. They silently waited as they

felt the ship hover down and eventually come to a landing somewhere on the

island.

Ranma smiled, "Well, now that we're here and know where the location is, I

guess it's time we contact everyone back home and tell them where to meet us for

the final battle,"

"Final battle?" Jean asked, "I don't really like the sound of that. It sounds

so...foreboding,"

Captain America and Thor emerged from the cockpit, a serious expression on

both of the faces.

"I've made a call back to base, giving everyone there the coordinates of where

we are," Captain America said, "They have begun their scramble to meet up with

us here,"

"So, what do we do now?" Ranma asked.

Captain America said, "We wait for their arrival. It's time we seize the

opportunity at hand and strike back at Apocalypse, and with everything we've

got,"

Ranma smiled.

"That sounds like a good plan,"

new stuff 9/11

Ranma stood outside and watched as Thor went about using his brute strength to

uproot trees and bringing them over to where the plane was and planted them

right in the ground right next to it. He watched as Jean seemed to use her

telekinetic abilities to do the same.

The overhanging branches worked quite well in hiding the plane from view.

It was nearing evening. This was because it took close to an hour of following

before they arrived at their destination, most likely Apocalypse's base.

"That's a smart idea," Ranma said, "Putting the trees down will lessen the

likelihood of the plane being detected from above,"

"We have no idea if sentinels or such make patrols," Psylocke commented, "Even

we don't see any sentinels around and they all disappeared into the mountain, we

have no idea if they might pop back out,"

Ranma could be seen looking about, as if trying to detect something but not

exactly know what it was he was trying to detect.

"Something the matter?" Psylocke asked.

"I don't think they should bother doing that," Ranma said, "As a matter of

fact, I think we should leave,"

"Leave? What for?" Psylocke asked.

Ranma crouched down and placed his hand on the dirt surface below his feet,

"Something's unnatural about this island. As a matter of fact, I'm positive it

isn't an island to begin with,"

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"This island sways much like a boat," Ranma said, "If this was a real island,

it wouldn't be swaying,"

"The island is swaying?" Psylocke asked, keeping an open-mind, "If it does

sway, how can you detect such swaying. This island is a giant landmass.

Something this massive would not sway as it floats over water,"

Ranma said, "Yeah. Well I sense it. The part of this island below sea level

doesn't extend all the way to the bottom of the ocean. This island is nothing

more than some kinda gigantic ship or such floating around over the ocean

waters,"

"I still don't understand how you can tell," Psylocke said.

"I can barely tell, but I can," Ranma said, "The swaying motions are very

subtle, kinda like the 'b' in the word 'subtle',"

"We should bring this to Captain America's attention," Psylocke said.

"I think Captain America's aware of that word," Ranma said.

Psylocke said, "Not that! The part about how this island might be a trap,"

"Oh," Ranma said.

Ranma and Psylocke glanced over toward Captain America as he could be seen

inside the cockpit. At the moment, he was communicating with headquarters, most

likely trying to plan out a coordinated plan of attack for when everyone

arrived.

Ranma said, "What I actually think now that we've landed her on this island is

to actually leave and regroup,"

"Regroup where?" Psylocke asked.

"Back home," Ranma said, "There's something iffy about being here, like this

place is a floating trap. I know when I'm walking into a trap, and I have a very

good feeling this is one of 'em. Sure, sometimes I don't care about walking into

a trap, but you need to keep in mind that while I may survive the trap, you guys

might not,"

"I'm going to go tell Captain America about your gut feeling then," Psylocke

began heading off, "Considering there is a chance we might be dealing with over

a hundred adamantium sentinels, this is definitely something we need to take

seriously,"

"Okay, you do that," Ranma said, turning around to head off, "I'll be around,"

"W-where are you going?" she asked.

"I'm going to go look for some snow so I can write my name," Ranma smirked.

"What does that mean?" she looked at him in confusion, "This artificial island

has a tropical environment. You're not going to find any snow,"

Ranma moved a hand over his head, "Don't worry about it. It's over your head,"

"What, is it another one of those 'It's beyond my comprehension' kind of

excuses?" Psylocke asked.

"Considering you're a girl, quite definitely," Ranma chuckled.

"Is that some kind of sexist remark?" she found herself getting angry, "What,

you think that being female makes me unable to understand something as opposed

to a guy?"

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He then made a shooing motion

toward Psylocke.

"Shoo shoo," he said, "Go bother Captain America of something. I find it

rather strange how all you girls seem to be interested in what I do and feel the

need to know what I'm doing at any particular time,"

"I was merely curious, Ranma," Psylocke snapped,

"Y'wanna know what I planned on doing then?" Ranma asked.

"Forget it," Psylocke said, "I'm not interested in anyway,"

Ranma shrugged, "Okay. Fine by me,"

"Fine, tell me," Psylocke said, realizing that Ranma didn't seem to care

whether or not she wanted to know what he was up to. Curiosity was definitely

something that usually got the better of her and everyone else when it came to

dealing with Ranma.

"I'm gonna go take a whiz," Ranma said, "I'm off to water a tree, okay?"

"Ew, why'd you have to tell me that?" she asked.

Ranma made a motion with his hands like he was choking an invisible opponent

with the exact same neck size as Psylocke's.

He took a deep breath before quickly turned around and walked off before he

said something that would result in the beginning of another argument. From

Ranma's point of view, it seemed to him that women always liked getting the last

word. If he said anything after that, it would just be the start of another

argument.

Psylocke watched Ranma's back as he disappeared into the woods to do his

business before she let out an annoyed breath and turned around and headed for

the plane to tell Captain America of what Ranma had mentioned to her, that there

was a chance that this could be a trap.

"I think we should leave," Psylocke said.

Captain America said into the radio communication, "Hold on. Something just

came up," He turned toward Psylocke, "You think we should leave? Whatever for?

As a matter of fact, we should stay and investigate first," Captain America

said.

"I'm not too sure about that," Psylocke said, "Ranma mentioned he had an eerie

feeling that this is a trap,"

Psylocke was in the cockpit with Captain America. Captain America had been

relaying the coordinates of their whereabouts back to Iron Man back at

headquarters. He had been requesting that Iron Man have everyone scramble toward

the location he had given and prepare for a battle.

Captain America turned toward the radio and spoke into the communication,

"Belay that request. Ranma's indicated that we might have stepped right into a

trap,"

"Ranma said that this is some kind of floating structure, like a giant ship

that looks like an island," Psylocke said, "And I believe him because it doesn't

makes sense for an island to be located this far out over the Atlantic Ocean,"

"I figured that as well," Captain America, "This island's location is too

unnatural. How can no one have ever detected it and mapped it out, afterall?"

"Well, that's all the more reason we should believe we're walking into a

trap," Psylocke said, now starting to believe what Ranma had mentioned.

Captain America's lips became a thin line as he wondered what he should do in

such a situation.

"What does Ranma recommend?" Captain America asked. He had to acknowledge that

Ranma's input really mattered, especially how he seemed to be very skilled at

coming up with solutions to problems.

"He said we should leave," Psylocke answered.

Captain America peered out the cockpit window, "Where's Ranma now?"

"Um, he went to the bathroom," she gave a shy smile.

"If he knows we are walking into a trap, how can he take a break to relieve

himself?" Captain America asked.

"You ask him," Psylocke said, "I don't care to really find out. It'll just

lead to some aggravation if I asked so I'm not going to bother,"

At that moment, Thor and Jean entered the cockpit, finished with their task at

hand.

"Where's Ranma?" Jean looked around, noticing Ranma wasn't around.

Psylocke thought about that. Maybe Ranma was right, people seemed genuinely

interested in knowing whatever the heck Ranma was up to. It wasn't as if anyone

really needed to know what Ranma was up to all the time in the first place.

"He went to relieve himself," Captain America said.

"He told you that?" Jean asked.

Captain America gestured toward Psylocke, "No, but it seems he told her that

and she relayed the message to me,"

"That's disgusting," Jean muttered in annoyance, "Why did he have to go make

something like that known?"

"It seems like Ranma can anger people without even being here," Thor stated,

"That seems like some special characteristic unique only to Ranma,"

Captain America cleared his throat, turning toward Psylocke, "Ranma really

said that, that he believes this place is a trap?"

"This place is a trap?" Jean asked.

Psylocke nodded, "That's what Ranma said. He thinks we should leave,"

The cockpit became silent.

After a minute silence, Captain America said, "Okay, we'll follow Ranma's

advice and leave. We can regroup back at headquarters and figure out what to do

from then,"

"But we just got here," Thor said, "We should at least investigate,"

"Well, Ranma said that this might be a trap," Captain America said.

"I guess it can't be helped. We leave then," Thor quickly changed his views.

Everyone looked at Thor. It was rather amazing how Thor seemed to follow Ranma

so blindly. They all knew that Thor seemed to have some kind of faith toward

Ranma. Sure, they were aware of Thor knowing Ranma used to be a former God, but

Thor's devotion toward Ranma seemed to border on that of blind devotion, a kind

that Ranma could easily abuse and exploit.

"I'm back," came Ranma's voice, leaning against the door to the cockpit. The

cockpit was already fairly crowded so he chose not to enter.

Everyone turned toward Ranma.

"Do you recommend we leave?" Captain America got right to the point.

Ranma said, "Yep. I've got a gut feeling that it's a trap. I may be able to

deal with whatever comes our way, but there's no guarantee any of you guys

will,"

Everyone became silent.

"I can probably take on whatever Apocalypse throws our way, but even I make

mistakes," Ranma had to acknowledge, "Like back there with Montauk Point and me

not having anticipated that the sentinels would have built-in Molecular

Rearrangers. We were almost screwed back there. I can usually adapt to any

situation, but I can't guarantee I could do so all the time especially if I

hafta worry about keeping you guys alive,"

Jean asked, "What, you think we get in your way or such?"

Ranma said, "Hey, I didn't say that,"

"We'll leave," Captain America jumped in, believing he should jump in before

Ranma said something stupid to make Jean or Psylocke upset with him, "I'll tell

headquarters we're coming back,"

"That sounds like a good plan," Ranma said, "Um, but before you do, do you

have some kind of tracking device?"

Captain America smirked, "It seems like we think alike,"

He exited the cockpit and entered the cabin area, walking over to a small

closet compartment near the back of the plane. Opening it up, he produced a

small device.

"What, is that a tracking device?" Ranma asked.

Captain America nodded, "Yes. We'll leave one here on this island. If this

island really isn't and island, it will probably move elsewhere over time. That

could explain why it was never discovered, because it's constantly moving. At

least this way, we can find out this island's location sometime down the line,

after we regroup,"

"Good idea," Ranma said.

Captain America headed out the plane, "I'll be right back. I'm going outside

to plant the device,"

Thor headed out of the plane as well, "Since it seems like we'll be leaving,

I'll go and remove the trees blocking our path,"

Ranma chuckled, "Man, I guess it would've been easier if we decided this

earlier, before y'did all that work,"

"I don't mind," Thor said, exiting the plane.

With Captain America and Thor gone, that left Ranma, Jean, and Psylocke by

themselves.

"Well, it seems like it's the three of us again," Ranma grinned.

Both girls looked nervously at Ranma, like he was just waiting to say

something stupid that would instantly star up an argument.

"Hey, why're you all nervous, it's not like I'm gonna rape you two while Thor

and Captain ain't around here to save you or nothing," Ranma said.

"Ranma!" they both shout toward him, stepping away, clutching at their chests.

Captain America entered the cockpit again. When he noticed Psylocke and Jean

clutching at their chests, he couldn't help but think Ranma had said or did

something he shouldn'tve done in the presence of females.

Captain America felt like Ranma was incorrigible.

"What the heck happened? I was gone for not even a minute!"

"Heh, I think we have some company," Ranma reached backwards to nudge at Jean

or Psylocke. When he felt his hands touch something soft and round, all he could

do was mutter the words, "Oh oh,"

"You did that on purpose!" Jean shouted, slapping Ranma's hand away with one

hand and slapping him in the cheek with another.

Ranma said, "Do you know that that that doesn't hurt me?"

"I don't care!" Jean said angrily, "I will not sit idle while you grope me

like that.

Ranma gazed over toward Psylocke and saw her glaring at him much like Jean.

"Are you angry because I grabbed Jean or are you angry because I grabbed Jean

and not you?" he asked.

"Why you!" Psylocke said coldly, but blushing for some reason, sorely tempted

to slap Ranma just for that rude commented.

"We've got company!" Captain America said entering the cabin, concern in his

voice.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the window, "Yeah. I saw. We've got lots and lots

of company,"

The two girls glanced by Ranma, Jean narrowing her eyes toward Ranma to make

sure he didn't her stare at her breasts as she peered out the window. When they

looked outside, they were shocked at what they saw.

The sky had became dark as hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sentinels

came pouring out from the side of the mountain all of a sudden, like that of

numerous bees coming out of a disturbed beehive. This occurred just as the plane

had taken off from the island and began its westward travel back toward

headquarters.

"Oh my God!" Jean gasped, "T-those are all sentinels!"

They watched as the sentinels continued to pour out from the mountain as the

plane flew away from the island at beyond super-sonic speeds. When they noticed

the sentinels seemed to fly after them as they flew away, they realized they

were being pursued.

"They're chasing after us," Captain America said, "It seems Ranma's right, we

had stepped into a trap. I think Apocalypse was laying in waiting for the others

to arrive, but when we started leaving, he realized we were running away and is

now pursuing after us,"

"This is bad, huh?" Ranma asked.

"Dire!" Captain America said, very worried, "Have you seen how many sentinels

there are? They number over five hundred!"

Ranma said, "Actually, from what I gather, there's more than double that. I

think there's somewhere around a thousand and eleven hundred of 'em,"

"They're still coming out?" Captain America walked over to the window and

looked out. A quick glance confirmed his fears, that there were indeed around

that many sentinels.

"W-where the hell did Apocalypse get so many sentinels?" Jean gasped, "That's

probably more than half of the worlds sentinel population currently pursuing

us!"

"Can we outrun then?" Psylocke asked nervously.

"Barely," Captain America said, "At this rate, it'll take several hours to

outrun them, and we will run out of Ocean long before that happens. We can't

have them chasing after us over America our the sight of so many sentinels will

cause a nationwide panic,"

Ranma scratched his chin, "Well, we can't have that. That's bad,"

"Of course," Captain America said.

"They're not firing upon us, are they?" Ranma asked, "If they were, it'd

probably be only a matter of time before we're shot down,"

"No, we are way outside their weapon ranges," Captain America stated, "You can

consider that good news. We've managed to get far enough away from the island

before the sentinels started coming out of the mountain and pursuing us,"

"You call headquarters?" Ranma asked.

Captain America shook his head, "Not yet, but I figure I should bring this to

your attention. What do you suggest?"

"Why are you asking me?" Ranma pointed to himself, "I ain't the leader,"

"Well, it's obvious your intuition is right," Captain America said, "I'd

really like to know of your input,"

"What do you have planned?" Ranma asked.

"To make a wide turn and head in the direction of Wakanda," Captain America

said, "We can do a fly-by over the country and have them take down as many

sentinels as possible. I can contact their king, Black Panther, about our

situation and I'm sure he will offer to help. Unfortunately, the destruction of

the sentinels being shot down while in flight will be tremendous. These are

sentinels that are over a hundred feet tall weighing over a thousand tons each

we're talking about. The impact of them physically falling down and hitting the

ground will cause shockwaves akin to medium-scale earthquakes. Wakanda has the

necessary force and technology to take them down, but even a campaign such as

this will cause devastating loses,"

Ranma shrugged, "Then so be it,"

"What?" everyone was shocked.

"Which one would you want, the destruction of the country or the destruction

of the world?" Ranma asked, "From what it seems, Apocalypse has unleashed an

army of sentinels that can very well take out all of the world's Heroes. This

considering how worried you with there being over a hundred of them. With ten

times more, that means they're ten times more likely to succeed. I doubt you

want them succeeding,"

Captain America said nothing.

"Y'need to take in the big picture," Ranma said, "It's the lesser of two

evils,"

"There has to be another way," Psylocke said, worried.

Ranma thought for a moment. He then snapped his fingers, "I know. How about

this? We head south toward Antarctica,"

"Antarctica? What for?" Jean asked, "Wait, I think I know where you're going

with this,"

"Antarctica is very desolate," Ranma said, "That way, there will be virtually

no collateral damage. Call headquarters and have everyone meet up with us there

for battle," After a moment, Ranma chuckled, "Man, poor Antarctica, it's minding

its own business but always ends up being a location for some kinda major

battle, being Second Impact, Third Impact, or whatever,"

"That could work," Captain America said, "I can even call Black Panther and

have him send a contingent to help us out. With over a thousand sentinels let

loose, the stakes have been raised ten fold and he will definitely do whatever

he can to help out,"

Ranma said, "This Black Panther guy seems cool, whoever he is. And I think you

mean to say five fold. There were around two hundred sentinels before so now

that there's over a thousand, if you do the math, it would be five fold,"

"What you're pointing out is trivial and irrelevant," Jean said in annoyance.

"Okay, forget I said that then," Ranma shrugged, "Jeez,"

Captain America turned toward the cockpit.

"I need to call headquarters as well as Black Panther and tell them about

this,"

Asuka entered the Training Room. Actually, she entered the room adjacent to

the Training Room, the room that monitored the activities within the Training

Room. It just happened to be considered a part of the Training Room though.

Not really knowing what to do to occupy her time, she figured she would watch

some of the X-Men or Avengers spar in there. Sometimes, she and most of the

people back home have kept themselves occupied for quite a bit of time just

watching Ranma and Ryoga spar against one another.

It was like watching poetry in motion, provided Ranma and Ryoga don't get

serious in their fighting and start pounding each other with such force that

either of them are sent flying out of the dojo. Initially, Ranma's and Ryoga's

sparring sessions are quite a visual treat.

Everyone in the room, busy conversing with themselves, stopped what they were

doing to see who entered. Everyone resumed what they were doing when they

realized it was Ranma's companion, Asuka. Everyone were on a state of readiness,

ready to scramble at a moment's notice once word of Apocalypse's base was

revealed.

With a quick glance around, Asuka saw Logan, Warbird, Storm, She-Hulk, Rouge,

and Nightcrawler. Cyclops could be seen inside the actually adjacent Training

Room shooting his optic blasts toward flying spherical objects floating around

in the room and destroying them. At random times, he could be seen destroying

the spheres with well placed punches and attacks as well.

"Hey, Asuka," Nightcrawler smiled, "So what brings you here to these neck of

the woods?"

"Hey, Nightcrawler," Asuka said, "I just figured I'd stop by and see how

people spar, when Ranma isn't around. What's going on in the other room?"

"At the moment, the room has a suppressor effect implemented," Nightcrawler

answered, "Forge fixed a suppressor device Logan found back in the Philippines,"

"Beast mentioned about that," Asuka said.

"Well, because of that, Forge was able to create a suppressor device fairly

quickly and put it into use," Nightcrawler continued, "Cyclops is currently

wearing a prototype anti-suppressor device on his person to counteract those

effects. As you can see, he's using his optic blast which shows his powers are

not suppressed anymore,"

Asuka smiled, "Well, that's great to hear. Not you guys can be of use,"

Nightcrawler gave a meek smile, "Yeah, we can be useful now,"

"I-I didn't mean it that way," Asuka held up her hands defensively, "I was

referring to-"

"I know," Nightcrawler chuckled.

Asuka continued to give an embarrassed smile.

"Say, I remember seeing that sparring session between yourself and Psylocke,"

Nightcrawler, "Might you be interested in sparring against another fellow X-

Men?"

"What? Why the heck would I want to do that again?" Asuka asked, surprised, "I

only agreed to do it because Ranma somehow dogged me into doing it,"

"Well, that sparring session taught everyone a lesson," Nightcrawler said, "If

you look into the adjacent room, you'll notice Cyclops actually doing physical

attacks on his 'opponents'. Your beating Psylocke showed everyone that they all

seemed to rely on their powers more than need be,"

Asuka's eyes widened, "Really?"

"For all we know, Ranma could've known you would win and purposely wanted you

to spar against Psylocke and show some kinda lesson to be learned," Nightcrawler

gave a chuckle, "But whatever the case, several of us have changed our fighting

habits and have been training under Logan in martial arts,"

"I figured Logan knows martial arts," Asuka asked, "I wouldn't be surprised.

From my point of view, he seems to be the best hand-to-hand fighter and I've

seen him spar against Ranma a few times and he does implement actual martial

arts techniques,"

"Rogue actually started learning martial arts as well as Storm, she actually

doubled up on her training as of recent," Nightcrawler said.

"That's good to hear," Asuka smiled, "Martial arts is a really good thing to

know. Everyone should learn it as a matter of fact,"

Nightcrawler jerked a thumb toward She-Hulk and Warbird and said, "Funnily

enough, the people that have seen it, know it's the real deal. The people that

haven't, would probably be in for a big surprise, especially if they find

themselves constantly thrown to the ground by that Perfect Shoulder Throw

technique you seem to favor,"

Asuka smiled, "That is a cool move, isn't it? Ranma mentioned that even if a

person can fly, there's nothing they could do against it. Of course, that's

provided the move is executed while I have my feet firmly on the ground. If

they're flying initially, then the move is useless as well as all throw moves

since the use of leverage no longer applies. Flight alters the complete rules of

martial arts,"

"Ah, I understand," Nightcrawler said, "That has been something that most of

us have wondered about,"

"Flight is an added element to martial arts," Asuka shrugged, "Not many forms

of martial arts deal with a flying opponent,"

"How about the one you study?" Nightcrawler asked.

Asuka nodded, "I know Anything Goes Martial Arts. It's one of the few arts

that can deal with flying opponents. It focuses on mid-air combat,"

"Mid-air combat?" Nightcrawler scratched his head, "How's that work?"

"If you jump toward me and I jump toward you, the art is shown in its truest

form," Asuka said, "The art is shown when you fight during that one second

window when you basically 'collide' into one another in the air before you past

each other and land on the ground. Ranma altered the art to deal with the

actually seizing of an opponent while you meet up in mid-air,"

Nightcrawler's eyes widened, "Really?"

Asuka nodded.

"Would you care for a demonstration?" Nightcrawler asked.

"No," Asuka shook her head, "Not after what happened between me and Psylocke

and Psylocke cheating,"

"Everyone knows you won that," Nightcrawler said, "Everyone knows you put

Psylocke in such a situation that even she got desperate and had to resort to

something like that to beat you,"

"Yeah, well it hurt," Asuka said, "God forbid I fight spar against someone

like Logan and put him in such a predicament and he gets desperate and cheats

and guts me. Not thank you,"

Nightcrawler have a shy smile, "You definitely have a point there. Just

curious, um, just how good a fighter are you?"

Asuka pointed to herself, "Me? Like in martial arts?"

Nightcrawler nodded.

"In pure martial arts, I'm the fifth of foruth best in the world, my world

that is," Asuka said reluctantly.

"Fifth of fourth best? That's extremely impressive," Nightcrawler was shocked,

"Who's better in martial arts than you?"

"Well, there's Ranma of course," Asuka said, "He trained me. He's the founder

of Anything Goes Martial Arts. The art existed before him but was lost to the

world when Ranma's friends and family were killed. When Ranma showed back up, he

recreated and revitalized the art. It's the most powerful martial art there is,"

"Wow," Nightcrawler said.

"Next would be Ryoga," Asuka said, "He doesn't have a particular martial arts.

Whatever art he knows, it's specifically designed to fight Ranma, and he

definitely gives Ranma a run for his money in terms of skill,"

"Who would be third then?" he asked.

"A woman named Akane Tendo," Asuka said, "She was trained by Ranma as well.

She has been trained by Ranma for much longer than I have so it's only natural

she's more skilled. Although Ranma teaches me, I'd be at the exact same level as

I am now had Akane trained me,"

"Wow, that's really really impressive," Nightcrawler said.

"Next comes someone named Shinji," Asuka reluctantly said, "He simply trains

more than myself though. If I trained as hard as him, I'd be just as good as

him. He's trained by Ranma as well,"

"Wow," Nightcrawler said, "So what you're saying that four of the world's

greatest martial artists are directly connected to Ranma?"

"Keep in mind that's in terms of pure 'skill'," Asuka added, "I'm talking

about knowledge of martial arts. If you bring in other elements, that's a

different story. Fighting against people that bring in other elements into a

martial arts fight skews the balance of skill. It's like bringing a gun to a

fist fight,"

At that moment, Logan approached the two of them.

"I heard whatcha said, kid," Logan smirked.

"Y-you did?" Asuka asked in surprised, "B-but you were all the way across the

room,"

Logan tapped his ear, "I have superhuman senses and my hearing is one of them.

What y'were talking about was very interesting. Y'should spar against a few

Avengers and get them noticing that skill plays a very integral part of

fighting,"

Asuka shook her head, "Not thank you, not after what happened back there with

Psylocke,"

"S'too bad," Logan said, "Woulda been interestin'. I'd've been rootin' for ya,

kid,"

"Really?" Asuka was surprised to hear that.

"I believe in skill above everythin' else," Logan said, "And you have th'same

mentality it seems,"

"I'm glad to hear that, but there ain't no way I'm stepping in the sparring

room again," Asuka said, "God forbid I've been in the sparring room against

someone like you and you gut me,"

Logan chuckled, "Y'might have a point there,"

"Count me out for sparring against X-Men or Avengers," Asuka said, "I'd rather

spar against Ranma,"

Nightcrawler scratched his head, "Lettme get this straight. You would rather

spar against Ranma, whom had individually sparred against all of us and beaten

us with no effort, than spar against any of us?"

Asuka shrugged, "Yeah. I guess it's because I'm more used to fighting someone

like him, even if it is him going easy on me,"

Logan jerked a thumb toward Cyclops, "Hey, how about y'spar against ol' One-

Eye instead?"

Asuka said, "I'm not interested,"

"C'mon," Logan said, "I'm actually interested in seeing you spar against him,"

"Could it because you and him don't get along and you don't mind the sight of

seeing me put him in some kinda painful armbar?" Asuka had to ask.

Nightcrawler chuckled, "She's perceptive. That's probably the sole reason from

my point of view,"

Logan chuckled, "More or less,"

Asuka shook her head, "Well, I'm not sparring against anyone,"

At that moment, the door opened and in entered Beast. Everyone stopped what

they were doing to turn their attention toward him.

"We've got a change in plans," Beast said, concern in his voice.

"What kind of news?" Nightcrawler asked.

"The group's currently being pursued by well over a thousand sentinels," Beast

said, "They're running for their lives,"

"What?" everyone gasped.

new stuff 9/13

Ranma yawned as he stretched out in his seat.

"What, you're going to sleep again?" Jean asked.

"What else is there to do?" Ranma asked, "Yes, we're being chased by over a

thousand adamantium sentinels. However, they're not firing at us and Captain

America have told everyone back at headquarters about what's happening. All we

can really do is just continue to fly away, and we won't be in Antarctica

anytime soon so I might as well make use of the time we've got,"

"I can't believe you could sleep in such a situation," Jean said, "We are

being chased by over a thousand sentinels. Don't you get it?"

"I get it," Ranma shrugged, "But then again, I have no problems taking a nap

or such whether we are chasing sentinels or being chased by 'em. They're all the

same to me. I guess I take stress a lot better than you do,"

Jean said, "I don't even know why I'm getting upset trying to argue with you.

It's like find stressful situations relaxing or something,"

Ranma shook his head, "Not really. I just think that we should make good use

of time. How does worrying about something make things any better? The problem

is still going to be there and the stress is gonna wear you down. Might as well

get ridda the stress if you can and just relax or something,"

"Your way of logic does seem sound, but that's easier said than done, Ranma,"

Psylocke commented.

Ranma said, "For you maybe. But for me, it's easy. I deal with matters at hand

differently than you do. Just because I do things different doesn't mean you

should cast some kinda judgment on me,"

At that moment, Captain America entered the cabin.

"You ever notice Captain America appears into a room, or this cabin for

instance, like some kinda plot device?" Ranma chuckled.

"Huh?" everyone asked.

"Nevermind," Ranma said, "I was just rambling. So, got any news?"

The man nodded, "Yes. First off, a quick scan from the plane showed that there

are currently one thousand, one hundred, and twenty-five sentinels in pursuit.

We will be heading toward the Lanson Plateau there. That's a wide open area that

have been designated as our battle field. It's over eight hundred square miles

of uninhabited terrain. We are currently heading westward instead of southward,"

Ranma gave Captain America a confused look for a moment, "Ah, I get it. If we

keep heading north, we will reach this Lanson Plateau before the other teams

arrive,"

"That's correct," Captain America smiled, "We will be traveling westward for a

short time, when we will then head northward toward the North Pole, and then

round the arctic circle before heading south toward Antarctica,"

"Why northward toward the North Pole?" Ranma asked, "Considering our location,

if the others leave now, they and us'll arrive at that location at around the

same time,"

"We need to give them time," Captain America said, "An anti-suppressor device

has been in the works. It just found out that they now have a working prototype

of it,"

Jean and Psylocke seemed delighted at the news.

"Really? That's excellent!" Jean said in relief, "What made Forge and Mr.

Fantastic change their mind?"

Captain America said, "They finished the Savage Land vibranium weapon. It's

been massed produced. They moved onto pooling their efforts together toward

making another device, an anti-suppressor device. It turns out that, because

Logan, Forge and Mr. Fantastic had a suppressor readily at hand to reverse-

engineer,"

"Logan?" Psylocke asked, "How did he get such a device?"

"It was a broken one from the Philippines," Captain America answered, "It

turns out Logan pocketed one of them and brought it back home with him. It was

forgotten about until now. Although it was broken, Forge fixed it without

problems and he and Mr. Fantastic went about designing a device to counteract

its suppressive effects,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma said, "Now the X-Men won't be useless,"

The girls glared at Ranma.

"What?" Ranma said, "It's not like I said anything wrong. I'm just stating the

obvious,"

"Moving on," Captain America, wondering how Ranma could show such lack of

tact, "The anti-suppressor device is in its testing phase at the moment. Forge

and Mr. Fantastic only need a couple of hours before they can mass produce the

device. The teams can leave at any time, but if we hold out long enough, the X-

Men will be outfitted with anti-suppressor devices,"

Ranma said, "Well, I guess it's best that we stall those chasing sentinels

then,"

"At that time, we will be well prepared," Captain America stated,

"Unfortunately, the fact that there are over a thousand sentinels are virtually

overwhelming odds. Luckily, those odds will be less overwhelming because Black

Panther has offered to help and is sending a large contingent of the Wakanda

Army to the Lanson Plateau to help us out,"

"How's this Black Panther going to get his army out to Antarctica?" Ranma

asked.

"Transport ships and such," Captain America answered, "Black Panther will have

no problems mobilizing in such a large force in such a short time,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma said, "It seems like this Black Panther is going

to be your trump card,"

"Not just him," Captain America said, "Black Panther will be with his

contingent when we arrive at the Lanson Plateau. And not only that, he has sent

a contingent toward what could be Apocalypse's base. Thanks to our intervention,

he has a place where to send his troops,"

"What, he's been worried about the going-ons of Apocalypse and wanted to do

something about it?" Ranma asked.

Captain America nodded, "Yes. The island will soon be overwhelmed with his

troops. The tracking device we placed on it was really helpful because it's

currently moving south, a slow pace, but moving nonetheless. Namor and his

Atlantean Army will also be attacking Apocalypse's island as well,"

"Namor?" Ranma asked, "Where have I heard that name before?"

"I mentioned it before," Captain America said, "I mentioned his name before.

He's the ruler of Atlantis and had been on the lookout for Apocalypse's base

over the Atlantic. We just happened to have found it before him,"

Ranma snapped his fingers, "Oh yeah, now I remember,"

"He and his Atlantean Army as well as Black Panther's Army will be converging

on that island," Captain America said, "Whatever that island has, it's as good

as neutralized. Even though Black Panther will not be with the Wakandan

contingent invading the island, Namor of the Atlantean Army will be giving

orders for both armies,"

"Wow, that's a good idea, to attack Apocalypse's base," Ranma said, "If that's

the case, Apocalypse'll hafta contend with two fronts instead of one,"

"This is a global situation we have here," Captain America said, "The X-Men,

Avengers, and Fantastic Four aren't the only Heroes fighting this battle. We can

expect to see Alpha Flight, Defenders, Thunderbolts, and X-Force to name a few,"

"X-Force?" Jean asked, "You mean Cable's back from space?"

Captain America said, "Seems so,"

"Cable? Oh yeah, he's your future son," Ranma said, recalling what Jean had

mentioned.

Jean nodded, "He's not MY son. But he's the son of my clone. In a sense, he's

every bit my son without my having given birth to him,"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "Hm, I better watch what I grab, huh? You son probably

wouldn't appreciate me accidentally grabbing his mom's breasts, huh? Even if

it's accidentally,"

"Most definitely!" Jean muttered, clutching at her chest, "He'll most likely

try and blow your head off if you try,"

Ranma laughed, "Bwahaha, he can try. I'm gonna now actively grope ya just to

see what he does,"

"You better not!" Jean said, blushing.

Ranma laughed.

"Is now the time to be talking about stuff like that?" Captain America didn't

seem amused. How the heck did Ranma seemed to change the course of the

conversation with such ease?

"Go on," Ranma became serious again.

"This is a world situation," Captain America said, "That's why so many Heroes

are all taking up arms against this new threat. Now that it seems we know our

current situation and Apocalypse is making his move, we can finally take actions

to stop him,"

Ranma chuckled, "You guys haven't even seen him. How do you know all of this

is Apocalypse's idea? For all we know, it could be Urd just wanting to test ya,"

"What?" Captain America said.

"Forget it," Ranma shrugged, "Anyway, this Lanson Plateau y'speak of, what's

its coordinates on the map?"

Captain America spoke of the coordinates and added, "That's the direct center

of the area. It's completely inhabited,"

"Not quite," Ranma chuckled. The coordinates Captain America was actually

right by where Magneto's base. It seems there might be a chance not only Heroes

will be there, but Magneto and whatever henchmen or super villains that sided

with him might be there as well.

"Not quite?" Jean asked, "What do you mean?"

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nothing. So, since it seems like this is the

final showdown and the rest of the Avengers and X-Men will be showing up there

soon, I assume Asuka isn't gonna be with 'em, right?"

"Right," Captain America said, "I've told them in advanced before of your

concern for her safety. Beast, Mr. Fantastic, Forge, and the Invisible Woman

will be watching over her,"

"The Invisible Woman?" Ranma asked.

"Mr. Fantastic's wife," Captain America said, "She's also a member of the

Fantastic Four. You haven't seen her yet,"

Ranma smirked, "Hm, could it perhaps be because she, I dunno, invisible

maybe?"

"No," Captain America said, "She wasn't around until now. The rest of the

Fantastic Four are back from Europe. Thing, Human Torch, and Invisible Woman

were all in Europe while Mr. Fantastic came to the Avengers' headquarters by

himself. Now the team is back together,"

"Human Torch, Thing, Invisible Woman?" Ranma smirked, "Man, the Heroes of this

world sound like movie titles,"

Captain America cleared his throat, "Anyway, they're together. Since Invisible

Woman needs to care for Franklin, their son, she will be staying at

headquarters. Mr. Fantastic and Forge will just stay behind and probably work on

creating some kind of offensive weapon should the teams fail and need to retreat

to regroup,"

"What kind of weapon?" Ranma asked.

"Who knows," Captain America shrugged, "Let's hope it never comes to that,

where we will have to retreat,"

Ranma said, "Well, since Asuka won't be tagging along with the teams to

Antarctica, she should be safe,"

"You sure care for Asuka," Psylocke commented, feeling a tinge of jealousy.

"We've been through a lot, yes," Ranma said, "Keep in mind she's also a normal

human girl. Having her tag along will just be suicide in this kind of situation.

She's been through a lot, but that doesn't mean she can survive some kind of

situation like this intact,"

Captain America said, "Don't worry, her safety is of utmost importance. I

assure you that she will be in good hands,"

Ranma smiled, "Yeah, well let's hope so. And just for good measure, call back

to headquarters and tell them to make sure they have Asuka accounted for before

they leave. God forbid she stows away in one of the planes before she leaves,"

"I'll do that," Captain America said.

"Good," Ranma smiled.

Captain America excused himself and went back to flying the plane. Sure, he

knew Thor was capable of flying the plane himself, but he preferred to fly the

plane himself more.

"Man, this is gonna be one helluva battle, that's for sure," Ranma chuckled,

leaning back in his seat, "I'm looking forward to seeing how powerful this

Wakandan Army is that shows up. Captain America's confident of the firepower

Wakanda possesses and I'm curious as to just how powerful an army would hafta be

to be able to take on so many adamantium sentinels. Take me for example, I took

out over twenty and I hafta admit that they even surprised me and I'm really

really really powerful,"

Jean said, "Well, it seems like everyone has their weaknesses. For you, it

happens to be dealing with multiple opponents,"

Ranma seemed actually offended, "I don't think so. I just happen to have

trouble because they're hundred plus feet tall robots. I ain't ever fought those

things before. It's like fighting EVAs. That's not an easy task no matter how

strong you are,"

"EVAs?" Psylocke asked, "What're those?"

Ranma shrugged, "EVA is short for Evangelion, these humanoid robots. Asuka

used to pilot once. She used to be an EVA pilot. Anyway, they're similar to

sentinels in size and power I guess. Actually, now that I think about it, the

fact that sentinels have adamantium armor probably makes them more powerful than

Evangelions,"

Ranma shrugged, as if he didn't really care to think all that deep into it.

"I'm off to nap now that Captain America's gone," Ranma closed his eyes.

"Man, everyone would be nervous if they were aware that they were in a

situation like this," Psylocke said, "You seem to be the only exception, to be

able to sleep in such a situation,"

Ranma said, "I didn't say I'm stress-free or nothing. I am worried about

what's to come, but I'm simply more relaxed about it, enough so that I can sleep

under such conditions. And for your information, just because everyone gets

stressed out in a situation like this doesn't mean it's the right way of dealing

with a situation. It's like religion. Just because everyone else is doing it

doesn't mean it's right. Just because everyone gets stressed doesn't mean it's

right,"

He yawned and closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair, "Just wake me up

when I'm needed,"

"What about if the plane gets shot down?" Jean asked, "If you sleep, you will

probably not wake up in time to get out safely. And even if you do get woken up

from the plane getting shot down, the few seconds it takes for your to get rid

of being disoriented from being woken from your sleep might be the deciding

factor in whether or not you jump out of the plane safely,"

Ranma sighed, "You're not gonna let this go, are you? For your information, it

don't matter to me if the plane gets shot down. I can sleep right through

whatever happens if I wanted to. Dontcha get it? I used to me God. You can blow

up a nuke on my face while I'm sleeping, and it won't matter to me. What matters

about the plane getting shot down is whether or not you will get out in time,"

The two girls said nothing.

"But it could be the deciding factor in your saving us," Jean had to ask,

"What if we can't get out but you can help us get out, but those few seconds you

needed to reorient yourself were the seconds you needed to get yourself and us

out of the plane safely,"

Ranma thought about that for a moment.

"Man, you suck," Ranma sat back upright in his seat, realizing that he wasn't

going to be able to go to sleep knowing something like that was possible, "You

just had to keep me from napping, huh?"

Jean couldn't help but smile.

"And from my point of view, it seems like you're already acknowledging that

I'm gonna be the one saving you two," Ranma grinned, "That's rather funny,

depending on me to save your butts,"

"It was just a hypothetical question," Jean quickly retorted, "It was for a

worst case scenario,"

Ranma chuckled, "That's still messed up. You assume I'm gonna save you,"

Jean and Psylocke were surprised to hear Ranma's statement.

"I'll save you of course," Ranma said, "But it's still fucked up. It's like

you're exploiting that fact I'll save you to your advantage. That's funny coming

from two girls that always get pissed at me and such,"

"That's because of the crap you do!" Jean said.

"Right," Psylocke said, "Like you groping Jean twice like that,"

"Well, what are you two to say?" Ranma said, "And for your information, they

were both accidents!"

"And what do you mean by that?" Psylocke asked.

"I was reaching over to nudge you and accidentally grabbed-" Ranma began.

"No, I mean about that 'what are you to say'?" Psylocke asked.

Ranma said, "Jean used her telepathic powers to read Asuka's mind to find out

about who I am after she found out she can't read my mind,"

Jean said nothing. Ranma knew that all along?

"I ain't stupid," Ranma said, a bit angry, "I didn't hear no apology from you

on what you did. And for your information, Asuka has a very troubled past she

never wants people to know about. Her thoughts are her own, and you using

telepathy on her without her consent is the equivalent to mind-rape,"

Jean's jaw hung in shock.

"And Psylocke, using her powers against her, a perfectly normal human being,"

Ranma added, "Have you ever thought that Asuka might not be psychologically

stable enough to withstand such telepathic powers used on her?"

Psylocke said nothing.

"We know our powers very well," Jean said, "We would never do such things like

that had there been the slightest change that it would cause psychological

damage to Asuka,"

Ranma said, "Psylocke knocked her out. How does that not count? I betcha if

that never occurred, Asuka would be more likely to spar in against the X-Men and

Avengers had that not happened,"

Both girls were silent.

"Y'see, you're both not all that saintly," Ranma smirked, "I may do some crap

as well that may piss you off, but I find it rather hypocritical they you do

things that I find good reason to get pissed off about from my point of view,"

"So what?" Psylocke realized, "You do that too. You did that to get our

measurements and bodyweight so you can win the bet with Cyclops which would

obligate him to steal Storm's panties,"

"What?" Jean's eyes widened.

Psylocke's eyes winded in surprise as she realized she wasn't supposed to say

that, that Jean wasn't supposed to have know of the dastardly deed her perverted

husband had done when in cahoots with Ranma. Psylocke, Storm, and Rogue had made

a vow to never let Cyclops know about what had happened. Sure, Jean could read

Cyclops' mind and extract the full story herself, but if she didn't know she was

supposed to be looking for that, she would never had known. That was an incident

Cyclops would had definitely had not wanted anyone else to know about.

Jean's eyes were wide toward Ranma, "You did what? You made my husband

obligated to steal?"

Ranma gave a meek smile.

"Y-you're gonna slap me again, aren't you?"

Asuka walked down one of the man hallways toward the rec-room. She felt

depressed. She knew that Ranma would soon be under going a major battle in

Antarctica very soon and it depressed her that she was not going to be there.

From what she had overheard back in the Training Room during the brief time

she was there, everyone was expecting to leave within a couple of hours. By

then, the anti-suppressor device would've been completed and mass produced.

She had tried sneaking onto one of the remaining planes and stowed away but

was easily detected. It seemed like Logan had been put in charge of just keeping

watch over the hanger area specifically to prevent her from stowing away.

"Sorry, kid, I can't letcha stow away," Logan said, "This's some serious stuff

we're getting ourselves into 'nd you'll be way in over yer head. Heck, we're in

over our heads as well,"

"But-" she tried to argue. She had been caught trying to cross the entrance to

the hanger area on her way toward one of the planes. Logan had been sitting near

on a desk and an detected her scent long before she detected him.

"No," Logan said, "And don't think you'll be able to sneak by us. We WILL make

sure you're accounted for before we leave just so something like this won't

happen,"

Asuka had let out an annoyed breath before she stormed out of the hanger.

Entering the rec-room she figured the only thing she could do was watch some

television. But then again, that wouldn't be all that useful since black out

knocked out most of the broadcast towers of vital power to send out television

signals. There were few channels to select from and she was sure they all

sucked.

Hopping over the back of the couch that faced the television, Asuka yelped in

surprised when she found someone actually sitting on there already. She ended

up tumbling over the person and landed on the floor.

Asuka looked up and found herself gazing at what looked like a young kid with

short blond hair and blue eyes. Although he was sitting down, making it hard to

tell how tall he was, Asuka was pretty sure he didn't even stand four feet tall.

He looked to be around seven years old.

"Ouch," the kid said, rubbing his head. It turned out Asuka had accidentally

elbowed the young kid on the top of the head as she hopped over the back of the

couch.

Asuka quickly got up to her feet, an embarrassed look on her face, "I'm sorry,

I didn't know you were there,"

The kid looked at Asuka curiously, still rubbing his head. He didn't

recognized her.

"Hi," he smiled sweetly, "I'm Franklin,"

"Um, hi, Franklin, I'm Asuka," Asuka said.

"Wanna watch some television?" he pointed toward the television, scooting over

in his seat.

"Um, er, okay," Asuka said, a bit confused. After a moment, she sat down on

the sofa, still regarding him, "Um, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean it,

really,"

"It's fine," Franklin seemed to have already forgotten about it. He smiled,

"Hey, look what I can do,"

Asuka watched as the kid made a gesture toward the television. All of a

sudden, the television magically shifted to a different color, shifting from

black to green.

Franklin started laughing, "Look a green television,"

Asuka smiled slightly. Franklin seemed to be easily amused. Oddly enough,

minus the obvious powers he possessed, he seemed to act like a young child, like

Madigan's and Carper's daughter, Jun, when she was his age a few years ago.

Franklin was a very powerful child, possessing the ability to alter reality.

However, at such a young age, he doesn't have the mental capacity to control

them well enough. Because of this, he had placed mental dampeners on his mind

awhile ago to block his powers, so that he could control them as he got older.

Those dampeners were slowly fading now that he was getting older. Before long,

he would have use of his full powers and be able to control it, perhaps in a few

years.

"That's cool," Asuka said, slightly impressed. Then again, it wasn't all that

impressive since she constantly saw Urd do things like that through sheer Will.

She had seen quite a bit over her life so she wasn't as easily impressed

anymore. She did find it amusing that the kid found it amusing though.

"You're young," the kid said flatly, "You're not older like everyone else

around here,"

Asuka laughed. A child's innocent honesty was quite funny to observe, provided

she wasn't on the receiving end of such honesty.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm eight and a half," he said proudly.

"Wow, you're going to be an adult really soon at that rate," Asuka smiled,

knowing full well kids loved the thought of becoming an adult.

Franklin nodded, "Yeah. I'm going to grow up big and strong. Even stronger

than my Daddy,"

"Who's your dad?" she asked curiously.

"Mr. Fantastic is my Daddy," Franklin said, figuring that Asuka would be

surprised to hear that. People usually freaked out when they found out who his

dad was, the Hero all Heroes aspire to become.

Asuka said, smiling, "Cool. You're dad's cool,"

Franklin was surprised she didn't seem all that surprised. Could there be a

possible chance that she might be his friend? A young boy without much friends,

Franklin usually wanted someone to play with. This was because it was hard to be

friends with a kid that usually had alien invaders, a man named Dr. Doom, and

such show up in attempts of kidnapping him as a way of getting back as his

family, the Fantastic Four.

"Will you be my friend?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure," Asuka shrugged, "I see no harm in that,"

Asuka giggled slightly. If a guy asked a girl that, the girl would most likely

look at him in disgust and then brush him off. But coming from a child, it was

rather cute.

"Let's go play Frisbee," Franklin grabbed Asuka's hand and began trying to

drag her toward the door, "We can play out in the backyard,"

There wasn't really a backyard. Franklin just considered the back field to the

headquarters the backyard.

Asuka shook her head, "Um, I'm not really interested. Thanks for the offer,"

"Why not?" he asked sadly.

"I've kinda got a lot on my mind," Asuka said, "I'd actually kinda like to be

alone,"

Franklin said in a pleading voice, "Please?"

Asuka said nothing for a moment. She regarded Franklin again. She had no idea

who this Franklin kid was or where he came from, but she found herself feeling

like some kind of bad guy for denying a kid a companion to play with, even if

she wasn't interested in the first place.

"Fine, I'll play with you," Asuka sighed. There was really nothing much she

could do. It wasn't as if she could go with everyone to Antarctica so she needed

to do something to occupy her time, even if it was playing with a little kid.

Perhaps it was for the better. It would make her feel less depressed at the

moment. She couldn't help but feel bad that she was basically using the kid to

occupy her time, but she was pretty sure the kid didn't mind. He seemed pretty

thrilled actually.

Asuka found herself having trouble keeping up with Franklin's little legs.

Perhaps the joy of having a friend to play Frisbee with made him bursting with

energy.

As they basically ran down the hall, they came to a skidding halt when a young

looking woman rounded the hallway. Had they not stopped in time, it would've

been a nasty collision.

Asuka looked up at the woman, not recognizing her. She was a beautiful woman

with short blond hair and blue eyes. It didn't take Asuka long to instantly

realize that this must be Franklin's mother. She donned a blue uniform similar

to Mr. Fantastic, which seemed made Asuka believe that she was most likely a

member of the Fantastic Four.

"Franklin, you know not to run in the halls like that," the woman said.

"Sorry, Mommy," Franklin apologized.

The woman regarded Asuka.

"Um, hello," Asuka gave a shy smile.

"I'm Susan. People call me the Invisible Woman," the woman said, "I see you've

met my son, Franklin,"

"Hi, I'm Asuka," Asuka said, "We just met in the rec-room. He wanted me to

play Frisbee with him,"

The woman smiled warmly, "That's nice to hear,"

"Do you know where my Frisbee is?" Franklin asked curiously.

"In your room," she answered.

The Fantastic Four had been allocated their own rooms ever since their

arrival. Franklin happened to have gotten his own room, several Avengers and X-

Men having to triple up on roommates to deal with the ever growing list of

people staying at the Avengers' place while still maintaining limited

accommodations.

"Thanks," Franklin said.

"Where are you going to go play?" the woman asked.

"In the back yard," he answered.

"Very well," she didn't seem to mind the thought of Asuka playing with her

son. She had no idea who Asuka was, but she had been briefed from everyone that

knew her that she was a good person and trusted their word.

"Okay," Franklin happily ran off. He stopped to motion to Asuka to follow

along, "C'mon slowpoke,"

Asuka gave the woman a shy smile before she said, "It was nice meeting you,"

"Likewise, Asuka," the Invisible Woman smiled warmly.

Asuka excused herself before she quickly followed after Franklin, wondering

how the heck things had turned out like this. However, if she really thought

about it, perhaps it was for the better. Ranma would be back before long anyway

and she needed to do something, even if it was something like playing Frisbee.

Besides, now that she thought of it, when was the last time she did something

simple like throw a Frisbee or play catch? Not anytime recently, that was for

sure. Now seemed like a good enough time as any to play for a bit and relax.

Asuka noticed something.

"I sure hope Puppy's friendly,"

Asuka actually had fun playing Frisbee with Franklin. The child had unbridled

enthusiasm and the thought of just playing Frisbee seemed to really amuse him

for some odd reason.

"Are you worried about what's going to happen?" Asuka asked.

"About what?" Franklin asked curiously, "What's going to happen?"

Asuka, realizing that perhaps he wasn't supposed to know of what was going on,

gave a meek smile, "Um, nothing all that important. Say, you go to school?"

The child seemed to be easily distracted, already forgetting that he was

supposed to be curious about what was happening, "Yeah. I'm in second grade,"

Asuka gave a slight smile as she recalled when she had been in first grade.

She had been a normal girl then, before she had started the long and hard road

of being trained as an EVA pilot back on her world.

"I remember those days," Asuka smiled.

"I don't like homework," Franklin said.

"It's not that bad," Asuka said, figuring it is not her place to tell the kid

what to do. Although Asuka knew it was Franklin's mother's job, Asuka knew she

herself should make an effort to try and keep the kid on the right path, "It

helps you out. I didn't like homework that much, but it makes you smart and

girls like smart boys,"

"So?" Franklin shrugged, "I don't care about girls,"

Asuka giggled. She forgot Franklin's age. At that age, boys didn't really care

all that much about girls. They understood girls much less and found them to be

almost alien of sorts. Oddly enough, Franklin will most likely grow up never

understanding girls anyway. That's how it was with the universe, guys would

never really understand girls.

"You should enjoy being young," Asuka said, "You may not know it, and want to

become an adult, but you'll eventually become an adult and will look back and

miss being young,"

"Really?" Franklin asked. Oddly enough, Franklin responded to people younger

than his parents simply because it seemed like they could relate to him more.

"Yeah," Asuka nodded, "Now that I'm more of an adult, I kinda miss the days

when I was a kid around your age,"

"I can fix that," Franklin shouted happily.

"Huh?" Asuka asked, "Fix what?"

Franklin made some odd gesture with his hands toward Asuka.

Asuka watched Franklin curiously. After a moment, she looked down at herself

and noticed she had a smaller body.

"What the?" her eyes widened.

Franklin shouted in glee, "Yeah, you're now my age! Now we can play even

more!"

Asuka touched at herself, feeling her chest area where she noticed she no

longer had breasts. Her hands looked small, like that of a child's.

"What did you do to me?" she felt the blood draining from her face.

"I changed you into my age," Franklin said, "What, you don't like it?"

"Y-you can do that?" Asuka wondered just how powerful this kid was.

"I can do lots of stuff with m'powers," Franklin said proudly, "I'm starting

to be able to control it. Pretty soon, I'll be able to control all of it when I

get older,"

Asuka gulped, wondering just how powerful this child could become when he got

older. Franklin had just displayed a power that Luna could do, and Luna was damn

powerful. From her point of view, if Franklin was this powerful at this age, he

would probably be able to consciously alter reality when he got older.

"Franklin, you can't do that," Asuka said, figuring now was not the time to

panic.

"Ooh, what d'we have here?" came a gruff voice from behind her, "Aw, ain't

that sweet. Frankie here got himself a little girlfriend,"

Asuka turned around to face the voice and found herself look up at a giant

creature that looked to possess rock-like skin. The creature wore a uniform

similar to the Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic, leading Asuka to believe that

this creature must be some member of the Fantastic Four. The man towered over

her, but mostly because she was now the size of a little child.

"Don't get scared, Asuka, he's my friend," Franklin was worried Asuka would

shriek at the sight of his friend, "That's my uncle, Ben,"

"Um, how do you do?" Asuka gave a shy smile, "Um, I'm Asuka,"

"The name's Ben, but everyone called me Thing," Thing smiled, his warm smile

belying the menacing exterior he possessed.

Asuka looked at Thing and then at Franklin and then back at Thing, "You're his

uncle,"

"Heh, not much of a family resemblance, huh?" Thing chuckled.

"Um, well..." Asuka said, "Yeah,"

"Franklin's my god-son," Thing said, "Mr. Fantastic, have you met him yet? He

and I go way back and are like brothers,"

"Ah," Asuka said.

"So, your name's Asuka, huh?" Thing scratched his chin, "The others told me

about you and this guy named Ranma. I figured you'd be a lot older,"

"Um, I was," Asuka said.

"Was?" Thing asked. He then looked at Franklin, "Did you change her into a

little girl?"

Franklin said nothing, looking down at the ground.

Thing sighed, "Sorry about that. Ever since Franklin's powers are starting to

surface, he's been using it more and more. He means absolutely no harm

whatsoever though,"

"Um, it's okay," Asuka said, "I've been in odd situations before, but this

takes the cake,"

Thing turned toward Franklin, "Y'not it's not right to do this to people,

especially strangers,"

"She's not a stranger," Franklin said, "She's Asuka. We met,"

"Still," Thing said, "You can't do this,"

Franklin sighed, "I know,"

He made a few gestures toward Asuka. Instantly, Asuka was instantly reverted

back into her adult form. She took a moment to inspect herself, to make sure she

wasn't missing an appendage or such. When she realized she seemed fine now, she

breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks," she said.

"I meant no harm in it," Franklin said apologetically, "I'm sorry if it

worried you. I thought you wanted to become a kid,"

"It's okay," Asuka smiled, "There was no harm done it seems. You just

surprised me, that's all. Perhaps we can call ourselves even for my accidentally

landing on you when I hopped over the couch,"

"Um, okay," Franklin said.

Asuka turned toward Thing, "Are you part of the Fantastic Four?"

Thing nodded, "Yeah. We haven't met before until now. You probably met Mr.

Fantastic already. Our team was in Europe but he came back alone. We finally

came back. We just arrived a short while ago,"

"Ah," Asuka said.

Thing jerked a thumb toward the building, "Have y'met Human Torch yet?"

"Human Torch?" Asuka asked, "I don't think so,"

"Don't worry, perhaps y'met him but don't remember," Thing laughed, "He's not

worth remembering,"

At that moment, a young looking man with short blond hair and blue eyes

emerged from the building at out to approached the group. Asuka didn't need to

take more than a second to realize that the man approaching them was the

Invisible Woman's brother. There was a family resemblance that she could easily

notice between siblings.

He smiled warmly at Asuka, "How do you do, I'm Jonathan Storm. Better known as

Human Torch,"

At the current moment, Human Torch was in his normal form, that of a regular

human. When he took on the form of Human Torch, he would basically look like

that of a flame humanoid in shape.

"I'm Asuka," Asuka said.

"Don't listen to him," Human Torch jerked a thumb toward Thing, "Thing here is

the kind of person you want to forget but can't, which is why you would get

nightmare of him whenever you go to sleep,"

Thing gave a sarcastic laugh, "Ha ha. Don't push it,"

Asuka giggled. From her point of view, it seemed like Thing and Human Torch

were friends that liked to jib on one another.

"I heard from the other of how you and this Ranma fellow are interested in

making an adamantium engine," Human Torch said.

"We are? Oh yeah, we are," Asuka gave a shy smile, "Heh, I forgot that's why

we're here in the first place. Because of all that's happened, that kinda got

pushed back into the background,"

Human Torch said, "If you want, I can help out. I'm pretty good at dealing

with automobiles and such and can probably be of use,"

Asuka gave a shy smile, "I guess after all of this blows over,"

"Cool," Human Torch smiled.

"What blows over?" Franklin asked.

Asuka noticed Thing and Human Torch look at one another.

"Nothing much," Thing said, "You don't need to worry about it,"

"It's a stupid adult thing," Human Torch added, "It's kinda like when you

sometimes see Uncle Ben and I arguing. We argue from time to time, but it's

usually about nothing. It's the same thing,"

"Oh," Franklin said, seemingly losing interest.

Asuka realized that it seemed like Thing and Human Torch didn't care to worry

Franklin about what was going on with the world. Perhaps it was for the best, to

keep the kid in the dark.

Asuka watched and overheard as Human Torched turned toward Thing and said, "We

are needed in the Meeting Room,"

"Okay," Thing said.

The two of them turn toward Asuka and Franklin.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Asuka," Thing smiled, "I'll see you and

Franklin around,"

The two excused themselves and headed into the building. Asuka knew they were

heading to the Meeting Room to discuss their plans. Mr. Fantastic and Forge were

nearing completion of the anti-suppressor device and mass production of it will

be underway.

She wondered how much longer it would be before everyone left to head for

Antarctica. However long it would be, she figured it would probably be leaving

within the next couple of hours. And what really sucked was that everyone was

very smart so there was no way she could possibly sneak onto the plane and stow

herself away all the way to Antarctica.

There was no way she could do that, especially with it indicated that the

teams will not leave until she was accounted for, should there ever be the

possibility she get past Logan and manage to sneak onto the plane.

She looked over at Franklin. Regarding him for a moment, something occurred to

her.

"Say, I'm curious about your powers," Asuka said, throwing the Frisbee toward

Franklin.

"What about it?" he asked curiously, catching the Frisbee.

"Do you know teleportation?"

Ranma stole glances toward Jean and Psylocke as they slept soundly.

It was now around nine and the sun had already set.

Jean had exploded at him when it was revealed his plot to get her husband in

trouble. Not wanting to deal with her, he simply pressed her sleep pressure

point.

When Psylocke tried to argue with him, wanting to lecturing about what he did

was wrong, he pressed her sleep pressure point as well.

Right now, they were both sleeping soundly. Psylocke happened to have fallen

asleep in her seat in a very licentious position, her legs spread wide apart.

Sure, she was wearing her uniform, but that uniform didn't leave much to the

imagination, especially with her legs in such a position.

Ranma walked over to where she slept and closed her legs. Sure, she wasn't

aware of what was happening around her, but it wasn't as if Ranma was THAT much

of a pervert.

As he was repositioning Psylocke into a less licentious position, Captain

America entered the cabin. When he caught sight of Ranma standing over

Psylocke's sleeping form, his hands on her knees, almost in a position as if he

was going to violated her, he sneered at Ranma.

"What are you doing?" he said defensively.

"Damn, are you like some kinda goddamn plot device?" Ranma muttered, "Why do

ya pop into the scene always at the most inappropriate times? For your

information, I was just repositioning Psylocke as she sleeps so she don't give

me weird ideas,"

Captain America seemed rather skeptic.

Finished reposition Psylocke, Ranma turned toward Captain America, "So, what

is it you wanted to tell us? Actually, me, since I'm the only one awake,"

"First off, what happened to them?" he asked curiously.

"I put them to sleep," Ranma said, "Don't worry, it's not like I knocked 'em

out or anything. I just pressed their pressure points,"

"Why?" he asked.

Ranma answered, "Cyclops stole Storm's panties. They believe I stole her

panties. This and that. A whole buncha crap I don't care to deal with,"

"Stealing panties?" Captain America was shocked.

"Forget it," Ranma said, "It's over your head. You're too goody-two-shoes to

understand it,"

"Try me," he said.

"Well, you know how guys are interested in women's panties," Ranma began, "And

you being a guy, you know where I'm coming from, right?"

"No, I don't know where you're coming from," Captain America said, "What makes

you think guys are interested in women's panties? Where did you come up with

this theory?"

Ranma said, "Man, are you a guy under that outfit?"

"What do you mean by that?" Captain America said.

"Forget it," Ranma sighed, "Look, what did you want to want to tell us?"

"I came in to tell the three of you about the assault on Apocalypse's island,"

Captain America said, "However, I was expecting Jean and Psylocke not to be

sound asleep,"

Ranma walked over and pressed several pressure points around Jean's and

Psylocke's bodies, around their chest area. Captain America initially thought

Ranma was groping them as they slept but careful observation made him realize

that wasn't the case. After a second, they opened their eyes and wake back up.

"Huh?" Jean was a bit disoriented, "Where am I?"

When she saw Ranma, she automatically remembered what had happened. She had

been chewing Ranma's ear off when she suddenly felt him grope her.

"Ranma!" she shouted, "What did you do to me?"

She tried to swipe at him, to perhaps slap him, but she missed him and ended

up falling forward, landing right on top of Ranma. Ranma ended up losing his

balance and fell backward, Jean landing down on top of him. To everyone's

surprise, Jean ended up accidentally kissing Ranma right on the lips.

"Jean! You're a married woman!" Ranma quickly scooted back, "I can't believe

you tried to kiss me like that!"

"I-it was a complete accident!" Jean had the most horrible blush on her face,

"I didn't do that on purpose!"

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, "You've gotta be kidding me. Tell me you

don't believe that it was my fault that that happened, Psylocke,"

Captain America seemed to be in a state of surprise, not daring to say

anything.

There was a moment of very awkward silence.

"Look, let's let bygones be bygones," Ranma said, "I'll forget that Jean tried

to rape me if you forget about chewing my ear off,"

"I was not trying to rape you!" Jean said, embarrassment replaced with anger.

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but this is unnecessary," Captain America

tried to seize control of the situation.

Ranma smirked. Jean and Psylocke glared at Ranma for a moment before turning

toward Captain America.

"Do you have any news?" Jean asked.

"Well, we're still being chased by over a thousand sentinels," Captain America

said, "We are still outside their weapon's range, thank goodness. We are now

headed south toward Antarctica and will be arriving there in a few hours,"

"South, already?" Psylocke said, "How long were we out?"

"A couple of hours," Ranma said.

Psylocke looked out the window and noticed that it was now late evening, that

the sun had already set. She remembered it was nearing sunset before.

Ranma smiled, "I put you guys to sleep a couple of hours ago,"

"What did you do to us?" Jean asked.

"I pushed your sleep pressure points," Ranma shrugged, "You guys had been

getting on my nerves chewing my ear off. I don't wanna deal with it,"

"So you just up and push our sleep pressure points?" Jean snapped at him.

"Yeah," Ranma said, shrugging, "You both were nagging me and I got sick of it.

Because I'm stuck on the plane with you and can't just walk away like I used to,

I did the next best thing, but you girls to sleep,"

The girls said nothing.

"It's not like I raped you two or nothing while you were sleeping so you've

got nothing to worry about," Ranma said.

"I don't know, it looked like you almost were when I came in," Captain America

said.

"What?" both of them said, blushing deep red.

"You're not helping me any Mr. Spandex Patriot," Ranma muttered in anger.

"What did you call me?" Captain America.

Ranma took a deep breath, knowing the situation was going to get ugly unless

someone took the reigns.

"Look, can you give us the scoop?" Ranma turned toward Captain America.

"We're still being chased by over a thousand sentinels," Captain America said,

letting bygones be bygones, "The anti-suppressor device has been fully worked

out and is now being mass-produced. Mr. Fantastic and Forge finished it about an

hour ago. Mass production of it has been underway since to outfit all mutants

that will be showing up and taking part in the upcoming battle. Same goes for

the Savage Land vibranium weapon. It's being mass-produced as well to outfit

everyone going into battle,"

Jean said, "That's good, it seems like the balance is slowly tipping in our

favor,"

Captain America said, "Slowly but surely, yes. But that's no reason to

celebrate. We've gotten word from Namor and the campaign against Apocalypse's

island,"

"They already attacked Apocalypse's island?" Jean's eyes widened, "How goes

that?"

"The island currently being attacked," Captain America said, "Both the

Atlantean and Wakandan armies that have begun their attack are receiving heavy

resistance,"

"How? I thought the island was basically empty since all those sentinels

started chasing us," Jean said, "I figure it would be basically defenseless,"

Captain America said, "Namor, who is currently the acting general for both

invading armies, believes that the island is an actual sentinel factory. The

factory seems to be automated as it seems to create and release sentinels every

few minutes,"

Everyone was silent.

"Since the moment we left and when the island was invaded by the Atlantean and

Wakandan armies, they were met with resistance from around a hundred sentinels,"

Captain America said, "That seems highly improbable, that so many sentinels

could be produced by a single factory so quickly,"

"There must've been some still on the island in reserve," Ranma said, "Perhaps

Apocalypse didn't send out all his sentinels after us,"

"Either that or Apocalypse somehow found a way to mass-produce sentinels at an

extremely short span of time," Captain America said, "It could be one or the

others. I think it might be the latter. It isn't beyond Apocalypse to be able to

upgrade existing technology and make it better and more efficient, especially

when it comes to something like creating sentinels,"

"Do you think the two armies will be able to take on those sentinels?" Jean

asked.

"Yes," Captain America said, "However, it'll take time. At the current rate of

battle, the island will most likely sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean

before sunrise,"

"That's, like, ten hours from now," Ranma said, "What, you think it would take

that long to take something out?"

Captain America asked, "I'd really like to know what kind of army you're used

to back on where you come from to consider ten or so hours a 'long' time to take

out an island factory that creates sentinels on the fly as well as has around a

hundred or so sentinels already there for defense,"

Ranma gave a shy smile, "I guess you have a point. Things like this do take

time,"

"How's the situation with headquarters? Have the teams started heading for

Antarctica to rendezvous with us?"

"They're preparing to leave," Captain America said, "They should probably be

leaving within the next ten minutes,"

Ranma was about to say something.

"Yes, I reminded them to make sure Asuka was accounted for before they leave,"

Captain America said, "She was last seen out back of headquarters so she has not

hidden herself as a stowaway on any of the planes that the teams will be taking

toward Antarctica,"

"That's good to hear," Ranma smiled.

"Moving on to our ordinance," Captain America said, "We are currently without

proper attire to fight in the Antarctica weather. The arriving teams will have

proper attire for us. They will also have Savage Land vibranium weapons for all

of use and someone there will give us a quick crash course on its use,"

Jean said, "What about anti-suppressor devices?"

"Those too," Captain America said, "You two will be given one each, as well as

all the mutants for all the other teams that will be showing up there as well.

Everyone will be awaiting our arrival and all the tailing sentinels,"

"Man, wouldn't it suck if the sentinels suddenly decide to stop chasing us,"

Ranma chuckled, "That way, that elaborate trap you guys set up will be for

nothing,"

Captain America said, "Not really, everyone is ready should something like

that happen. They will all converge on Apocalypse's island to help out the

Atlantean and Wakandan armies with their battles. Should the sentinels quit

their pursuit, we will be the ones doing the chasing, all the way back to

Apocalypse's island,

"Ah," Ranma said, "That's a good idea. How much longer before we arrive at

Lanson Plateau?"

"We are heading straight for there now," Captain America answered, " At our

current rate of velocity, we will be arriving there at three-ten in the

morning,"

"Damn, night fighting, that's gonna suck," Ranma muttered, "And in Antarctica

nonetheless. We ain't gonna be seeing anything,"

Captain America said, "But there is nothing we could do given our current

situation. It doesn't matter that much. Forge and Mr. Fantastic created a some

kind of device that can float in the upper stratosphere that will provide a form

of light source, like a temporary sun. It can light the sky like that of several

flares but on a more permanent basis,"

"What if the device is shot down?" Ranma asked, "Then we'll be plunged into

darkness,"

"There will be multiple devices put to use, not just one," Captain America

said, "Knowing Mr. Fantastic, he will probably be over redundant with light a

light source and probably send out several hundred. Light will not be a problems

during the battle,"

"Just making sure," Ranma said, "Y'can never be too careful,"

Franklin yawned as he sat next to Asuka, "I'm sleepy,"

"Just stay up a little bit longer," Asuka felt bad, "Can you do that?"

"I'll try," he said.

Asuka and Franklin were sitting on the couch watching the news as it went

about reporting the recent black out. What she found odd is why the news station

was reporting it since no one else had power which meant no one could watch the

news. The Avengers' headquarters happen to have power because they have their

own power generators just for such an occasion.

"Asuka?" came a voice.

Asuka looked around the back of the couch and saw Beast approaching the two of

them.

"Um, hey," she gave a shy smile, knowing full well why he was there in the

first place, to make sure she was accounted for.

"I was wondering where you were," Beast said.

"How goes everything?" she asked, "Is everyone getting everything ready to

leave?"

Beast nodded, "Yes, they're all suiting up and getting ready to leave,"

"Um, can we go see them off?" she said, hopping off the couch and walking

around to meet up with Beast. She held Franklin's hand as the young kid seemed

to sleepily follow her.

"Sure," Beast said, smiling at Franklin, "How you doing there, Franklin?"

"I'm fine," Franklin answered, more awake now. Perhaps he needed to simply

move around to wake back up.

Asuka and Franklin began following after Beast.

"Beast, since you're going to be staying, how about a movie?" she asked,

hoping her plans worked.

Beast asked, "Oh?"

"Two movies actually," Asuka said.

"What kind of movies?" Beast asked curious.

Asuka gave smile, "The Bridge over Madison County and Bridget Jones' Diary,"

She had done some quick research on the computer in the corner of the rec-room

and had ascertained that those were two 'chick flicks' that no guy ever wanted

to voluntarily see such movies.

"Um, er," Beast tried to think of a good way of declining.

"They're playing back to back on the television," Asuka said.

"Really? With the blackout going on?" Beast asked.

"Not all that television stations are down," Asuka said, "It's going to be on

shortly and I want to see them,"

"Um, I think I'm going to have to decline," Beast gave a shy smile, "Um, I

have a lot of work to do in the lab with Mr. Fantastic and Forge,"

"Oh," Asuka said, "Well, when you're done, be sure to visit the rec-room when

you're not busy. If you finish early enough, you can perhaps catch the second

movie,"

"Um, I'll try but I wouldn't make any bets on it," Beast said, automatically

telling himself he will not enter the rec-room looking for Asuka for at least

four hours or risk having to watch either or both of those two movies with her.

"Um, let's go see the teams off, okay?" Beast wanted to change the subject.

"Okay," Asuka smiled.

The three off them headed for the elevators near the back of headquarters that

will take then up to the hanger bay.

"So, who's going?" Asuka asked, thinking well to word he questions correctly,

"How many planes are you guys taking?"

"Three," Beast said.

He went about telling who would be on which plane. All Asuka did was keep note

of which plane Logan and Iron Man would be on. She believed those two are

probably the most perceptive of all the crew.

"What's going on?" Franklin asked curiously.

"Your friends are going on a mission," Beast felt it couldn't hurt to reveal

to the young child.

The three of them went to the hanger bay where they saw everyone gathered

around the plane, carrying large containers of items and such into the planes.

Asuka noticed everyone seemed to be loading up the planes. She noticed that

among the group were Human Torch and Thing as well and believed that they would

be taking part in the mission as well.

"What are they loading up?" she asked.

"Most of them are the Savage Land vibranium devices," Beast answered, "We are

in charge of supplying a few dozen Heroes with the device, the only necessary

means for defeating those adamantium sentinels. That's most of the bulk of the

cargo. There are some that's for the anti-suppressor devices that will be given

to the other mutants that will be showing up,"

"Are you sure you have enough?" Asuka asked.

Beast nodded, "We have way more than enough. We have excess amounts actually,

of the weapons and anti-suppressor devices,"

"Didn't you say there is a time limit on how long those weapons last?" Asuka

asked, "Isn't there some kind of fail safe device to prevent anyone from getting

their hands on it an exploiting it to the world?"

Beast nodded, "Yes. But so long as they remain in their cargo boxes, they

won't be rendered useless after an elapsed time,"

"That's good to hear," she said. She pointed, "What's that's with those boxes

and such?"

"Winterwear," Beast said, "They're going to be fighting in Antarctic weather

conditions. Some can withstand the cold, but not all of them. That's just to

keep everyone warm and such,"

"Um, you think they have enough?" she asked.

Beast nodded, "Yes. There's plenty enough for everyone as well as extra like

Ranma and the others and such. Those other boxes over there are medical

supplies. Just because we now have the necessary weapons to fight the sentinels,

that doesn't mean we won't suffer casualties,"

Asuka gulped.

At that moment, Mr. Fantastic, Bruce, Forge, Xavier, and Invisible Woman

walked up to the group from behind. They were among the people that would be

staying behind at headquarters. They, as well as Beast, were needed back at the

base. They were in charge of keeping track of everything that would be happening

on the other side of the world as well as in trying to continue developing more

weapons should there be the chance that, god forbid, all the Heroes needed to

retreat and try and regroup.

"It seems like everyone's just about done loading up," Mr. Fantastic said.

"Franklin, you should be asleep," Invisible Woman noticed her son sleepily

standing by Asuka's side.

"Let the boy at least see everyone off at least, Honey," Mr. Fantastic said to

his wife, "

After everyone finished loading up the planes, they all approached the group

observing.

"Well," Cyclops stepped forward, "It seems like we are off now,"

"It seems like you guys are up against a foe worse than anything anyone of us

had ever encountered," Mr. Fantastic commented, "Sure, they may be sentinels,

but they are not to be taken lightly,"

"I'm ready to beat some sentinel heads in," Thing smirked.

"Same here, Sugah," Rogue said anxiously, "It's 'bout time we start doin'

somethin' instead of jus' waitin' around fer something t'happen,"

"See y'guys on the plane," Logan walked off, "I don't care much about

goodbyes,"

Everyone said their goodbyes, some giving each other embraces to the observing

group. The goodbyes were very heartfelt, as if all the Heroes leaving knew that

there was a chance they might not be coming back.

After a few minutes of saying goodbyes, everyone broke up into three separate

groups and headed toward their respective planes. After a few minutes, the

planes could be seen taking off and disappearing toward the horizon.

"Um, Franklin seems sleepy," Asuka said, "I'll go take him to his room,"

"Are you sure? I can do it for you," the Invisible Woman said.

"It's fine," Asuka said.

Together, Asuka and Franklin left the hanger bay. Asuka walked Franklin to his

room and noticed the little boy seemed very tired. He nearly fell dead asleep as

he flopped down on his bed.

Asuka gently covered up Franklin in his blankets.

"G'night, Asuka," Franklin said sleepily, closing his eyes, "I had fun today,"

Asuka quickly said, "Wait, before you go to sleep, can you do me a favor and

teleport me onto the plane?"

"Oh yeah," Franklin gave a shy smile, "I forgot,"

"Can you teleport me to the back of the last plane that left the cargo bay?"

she asked, "That's the one that Iron Man and Logan didn't get on,"

"Okay," Franklin said.

He sleepily made a gesture toward Asuka.

Asuka looked down at herself and noticed herself beginning to glow a brilliant

shade of red. After a second, she suddenly disappeared, instantly teleported

away from his room.

Franklin said sleepily before turning over in his bed and falling asleep, but

not before he said,

"Bye bye, Asuka,"

"Um, how was the kiss?"

Jean turned to Psylocke in surprise, "What?"

"I'm just curious," Psylocke said, "I know it was accidental, but a kiss is a

kiss is a kiss,"

Jean blushed a deep shad of red.

Jean and Psylocke were alone in the cabin. Ranma had gone into the cockpit to

be with Captain America and Thor. He had expressed interest in knowing more

about what kind of plane he flew in. Perhaps it was because he was bored and

needed to pass the time.

"C'mon," Psylocke asked.

"I don't even know why you're asking me such a question," Jean became

defensive, "I'm a married woman,"

Psylocke waved a dismissive hand, "Don't give me any of that 'I'm a married

woman' crap. Just give me the dirt,"

Jean said nothing.

"Ranma isn't here," Psylocke said, "It's just the two of us,"

Jean continued to say nothing.

"I'm curious," Psylocke continued on.

"Why are you so interested, do you have some kind of attraction toward him?"

Jean asked, wanting to change the subject.

Psylocke blushed slightly, "What, you don't?"

"What?" Jean's eyes widened, "I'm happily marr-"

"I know, I know," Psylocke said, "You're a happily married woman. But still,

you're a woman nonetheless,"

Jean said nothing.

"Don't tell me that you find Ranma detestable or something," Psylocke said,

"Sure, he does get on everyone's nerves and such, but he also makes things

interesting,"

"How?" Jean asked, "How does him accidentally groping me make things

interesting?"

Psylocke shrugged, "I don't know. Perhaps it's because he brings an element of

chaos to the table. Don't you think there's this unpredictability to him that

you find attractive?"

"I'm not hearing any of this," Jean said, "Consider this discussion closed,"

"I think you're just dodging the question," Psylocke said.

"What do you want to know?" Jean asked in annoyance, realizing Psylocke really

was going to pester her unless she told her something, anything.

"How was it?" Psylocke asked.

"It was nothing," she answered truthfully, "We accidentally brushed lips, that

was in. No, there was no tongue action as I believe you're going to ask,"

Psylocke smirked, "Was it soft? Or hard?"

"What?" Jean's eyes widened, "Why are you asking such a question as to

Ranma's arousal?"

Psylocke said, "Um, I was asking about the kiss,"

Jean blushed a deep shade of red. Why did she think that anyway?

"Look, it was simply our lips happening to accidentally brush against one

another's," Jean said, "There was nothing special about it,"

"Fine, I'll drop it," Psylocke said.

"What do you see in him?" Jean asked.

"He keeps me on my toes," Psylocke said, "I've never met a person like him

before,"

"So that means you should have an attraction to him?" Jean asked.

Psylocke asked, "When was the last time you ever talked to a guy that truly

kept you on your toes? I know your husband doesn't. He usually reacts to stuff

in a normal, calm, and predictable pattern,"

Jean thought about it for a moment. Psylocke was right.

"I myself like that sense of unpredictability," Psylocke said, "What guy has

ever gave your brain such an exercise by keeping you wondering what the heck he

would do next?"

"No one," Jean answered.

"Besides, it's kind of fun talking to him," Psylocke said, "None of the other

guys we are ever around makes talking to so unpredictable. I like talking to

him, I like talking to someone and having no idea what's going to come next.

It's as if talking to him is its own adventure,"

"Okay, you do have a point," Jean said, "He is unpredictable and it is kind of

amusing talking to him since you have no idea what he's going to say next. But

frankly, I don't really care for it since what he usually says next will get me

angry or offend me,"

"But isn't that the fun part, wondering what he's going to say next that will

get you angry?" Psylocke smiled.

"No," Jean said, "Not really,"

Psylocke shrugged, "Oh well. To each their own I guess,"

"Ranma is a nice guy, in that weird twisted way," Jean said, "But I can't see

myself and him together. I can see us as being good friends and all, but nothing

beyond that,"

"I don't know," Psylocke said, "I guess I just like talking to guys that are

very easy to talk to. I don't like pulling teeth trying to keep a conversation

going. With someone like Ranma, it feels like it's natural talking to him,"

"I guess you do have a point there," Jean agreed, "It is really easy talking

to Ranma, provided he isn't saying something that would upset me,"

At that moment, Thor emerged from the cockpit.

"Hello, Thor," Psylocke said. She said leaned toward Jean and whispered, "See

how different conversations with guys other than Ranma. Not many guys are

adept at the ways of chit chat,"

"Good evening," he said.

"Lovely weather we're are having," Psylocke said.

Thor looked out the window, "The weather seems fair,"

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Are you worried about the upcoming battle?"

"Yes," Thor said.

More awkward silence.

"Did you know a rock is alive but moves really slow?" Psylocke asked,

remembering Ranma saying that once. Of course, Ranma had used that as a mere

conversational piece, but it sure got everyone talking.

Thor looked at Psylocke curious, "It is?"

"At least Ranma said so," Psylocke said, "What do you think?"

"I would have to disagree," Thor said, "There is no indication of rocks being

alive,"

Once again, awkward silence.

Psylocke gave Jean a silent look that seemed to say 'See? Look how hard it is

to try and talk to someone other than Ranma'.

All of a sudden, the planed did a complete barrel roll toward the left.

Everyone in the cabin yelped in surprise as they found themselves tumbling all

around, tumbling around the side, the ceiling, and then the side again before

falling back into their seat.

"What the heck just happened?" Jean asked.

Thor seemed to have recovered first as he quickly rushed toward the cockpit,

wondering what had just happened. Jean and Psylocke needed a minute to reorient

themselves.

After a moment, they got up to head to the cockpit to see what had happened,

worried that the sentinels had caught up and Captain America had been forced to

take evasive maneuvers.

"Get out!" they heard Captain America's voice, "You just endangered not only

our lived, but our mission!"

"So what? Can YOU kick MY ass?" they heard Ranma's voice.

After some more arguing, Ranma seemed to relent and left the cockpit.

"W-what happened?" Jean asked.

"I asked Captain America if he could show me how to fly the plane," Ranma

said, "Captain America didn't seem to mind and let me have the controls,"

"Y-you did that barrel roll?" Jean asked, her mouth hanging wide opened, "That

wasn't some kind of evasive maneuver?"

Ranma shook his head, "No. Why the heck would we need to do an evasive

maneuver? I just did that because I was curious as to how it feels to be in a

plane doing a barrel roll. I didn't realize Captain America would get his

panties in a bunch all of a sudden. I asked him if this plane could do a barrel

roll and he said yeah. I don't understand why he's all angry. I bothered to ask

him first, afterall. Shouldn't that count as something?"

"What the hell's wrong with you, Ranma!" Jean shouted at Ranma.

Ranma realized something, "Oh no, you guys weren't strapped in. I never

realized that. I'm so sorry, I shouldn'tve done that. You guys all right?"

Both girls were caught off-guard by the sudden apology. Ranma's sincerity

seemed to have caught them by surprise.

"Um, we're both fine," Jean said, "But that's besides the point. You don't go

do a barrel roll just because you're curious as to how it feels. That's

completely reckless and unnecessary. Don't you realize we are in the middle of a

mission with over a thousand sentinels chasing us? Jeez,"

"I said I'm sorry," Ranma said.

Jean let out an annoyed breath as she sat down in her seat.

Psylocke glared at Ranma for a bit before she sat down.

Ranma shrugged and sat down in his own seat.

There was a moment of awkward silence in the cabin. However, that was quickly

broken when Ranma said something.

"So, what were you girls talking about while I wasn't here?" Ranma grinned.

"That's none of your business," Jean said angrily.

"Was it about me?" Ranma guessed.

"I don't think so!" Jean said, recalling that Ranma had this uncanny ability

to guess correctly on the very first try. However, her reaction would usually

give away whether or not he was right.

Ranma snapped his fingers, "Damn, I figured I'd guess right,"

The girls noticed there was a moment of awkward silence, but that was because

Ranma decided to occupy himself with looking out the window instead of

conversing with the girls like usual. This went on for around ten minutes before

both girls seemed to feel the need to say something.

"I can't believe you did that barrel roll," Jean stated.

"Yeah," Psylocke agreed.

"I said I was sorry, jeez," Ranma said, returning to looking out the window

again.

There was awkward silence again. This surprised both girls because they

figured Ranma would say something to keep the conversation going.

"It was really stupid," Jean persisted.

"Yeah," Psylocke said.

Ranma shrugged, letting the comment bounce right off. There was silence once

again which seemed to eat away at the girls.

"You endangered us all," Psylocke added after a bit.

"Wow, have you two lost weight?" Ranma asked from out of the blue.

Jean and Psylocke were caught completely off-guard by that commented.

"R-really?" Jean asked, blushing, "What, you think we both lost weight?"

"Yeah," Ranma said, "You both look slimmer,"

They both blushed, "T-thank you,"

Ranma smiled back. Both girls couldn't help but feel rather happy at the

commented. It seemed like Ranma's unpredictability did have some good sides to

it, unexpected compliments, the kind women liked the most.

"Damn, it's really easy making girls not angry," Ranma chuckled, "Just ask

them 'Have you lost weight?' and they instantly forget that they're angry at

you,"

"What!" both girls said in unison, both becoming furious.

Ranma gave a shy smile, realizing that he wasn't supposed to say his thoughts

out loud like that.

"Y-you're both going to slap me, aren't you?"

Asuka felt the need to use the bathroom.

She cursed at herself for not having taken bodily functions into consideration

before allowing herself to be teleported onto one of the three planes heading

Antarctica.

For the past few hours, she had made herself scarce, hiding among the cargo

boxes full of Savage Land vibranium weapons and anti-suppressor devices and

medical equipment that was in the back portion of the plane.

She looked at her watch and noticed that it was nearing two-thirty. That meant

the plane would be landing soon. She had overheard a conversation in the Meeting

Room about how the group would be arriving a half hour before Ranma and the

chasing Sentinels were expected to arrive, to prepare and distribute the weapons

and such to all the other teams already there.

She tried to force herself to wait longer, for when everyone had exited the

plane, but realized she could not hold it in any longer.

Trying to utilize her knowledge of stealth the best to her abilities, she

silently made her way toward the middle of the plane, where the bathroom was

located.

She managed to make it to the bathroom undetected. However, as she made her

way from the bathroom back toward the cargo area, someone heard her.

"You hear that?" she heard Rogue's voice, "Sounded like someone's back in the

cargo area,"

Asuka realized that she was in trouble. Knowing that there was no where she

could hide and the Avengers and X-Men would be very thorough with their search,

she decided that she was as good as caught.

She just stood right in the middle of the cargo bay.

The few X-Men and Avengers that came around to the back to investigate were

shocked at what they saw. On that plane, the ones came around to investigate

were Storm, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and She-Hulk.

"A-Asuka? W-what are you doing here?" Storm's visage was full of shock.

"Um, I stowed away," she gave a shy smile.

"H-how?" Storm asked, "We all saw you in the hanger bay as we took off. How

on Earth did you get onto our plane after we took off?"

Asuka said, "I convinced Franklin to teleport me onto the plane,"

Everyone was silent. No one had ever suspected that Asuka would do something

like that.

"How the heck did no one detect that you were gone from the base?" Storm

asked, "There's no way Beast could not notice you gone,"

Asuka said, "I told him I was going to watch the movies, 'Bridge Over Madison

County' and 'Bridget Jones' Diary' and that he, if he wasn't busy, could come

watch it with me,"

"Wow, that's pure genius," She-Hulk smirked, "That's a good way to keep any

guy from checking on you for an extended period of time,"

"Asuka, do you realize what you just did?" Nightcrawler asked, "You just put

yourself in mortal danger coming out here with us,"

"So have you guys," Asuka stated, "I should be free to make my own decisions,"

Storm sighed, "I can't believe she's here with us. This just changed our set

of priorities,"

"How?" Asuka asked.

"We need to take into account your safety," Storm said, "If you weren't here,

everyone can just focus on offense. But with you here, we now need to watch out

for your safety,"

"I-I didn't mean to be a burden," Asuka said sincerely, "I didn't want to be

left behind. I wanted to help in some way, whatever way,"

"You could've helped by not having come along," Storm sighed, feeling like she

was getting a headache.

Rogue turned around to head out of the cargo bay, "Ah need t'get ev'ryone

updated about this sudden change in plans,"

Asuka said, "I didn't mean it like that. I really want to help,"

"Look, what's done is done," Storm said, trying to make the best out of a bad

situation, "This isn't that bad of a set-back. We are not even ten minutes out

from our destination. All we need to do is land and drop everything and everyone

off. One of us can volunteer to fly Asuka back, before the sentinels show up,"

Asuka said nothing.

"Hey, have the girls of X-Men ever considered an all-girl org-" Ranma asked

curiously, "I'm sure a lot of guys would like to see that,"

"You really have no limits in terms of what you say, do you?" Psylocke

interrupted, appalled.

Ranma smiled, "Not really. I just say things what most guys think but don't

have the guts to say,"

"Maybe it's not the guts that they don't have to say," Jean said, "Maybe it's

the smarts that they do have not to say anyway,"

Ranma shrugged, "Sounds no different from one another,"

"You're so incorrigible!" Jean said, nearly fuming.

"You ain't gonna try and slap me again and suddenly slip and try and rape me,

are you?" Ranma leaned away from her.

"I did not try to rape you!" Jean shouted in annoyance, "All I did was kiss

you!"

"So you admit it," Ranma pointed.

Jean shouted in frustrating.

At that moment, Captain America entered the cabin.

"Well look who it is, the Spandex Plot Device," Ranma chuckled.

"What?" Captain America asked.

"Forget it," Ranma said, "It's not important,"

Captain America narrowed his eyes toward Ranma. He still hadn't forgiven Ranma

for taking the plane into a barrel roll like that. It didn't seem to bother

Ranma one bit that Captain America was still angry at him. Then again, with

Ranma, he could care less who was angry at him.

"So what news do you have now?" Ranma asked.

The man said, "It seems like your friend, Asuka, was found stowed away on one

of the planes on their way to Antarctica,"

"What?" everyone in the room said in shock.

"I specifically requested that she be accounted for before the group leaves,"

Ranma said angrily, getting up from his seat, "Do both Avengers and X-Men suck

at their jobs that they can't do something as simple as prevent Asuka from

stowing away on their plane, especially when I specifically told them how to

prevent it?"

Captain America noticed Ranma's frustration but didn't step back from the

display of anger. However, he couldn't help but feel this sense of fear at the

prospect that Ranma, in a fit of anger, could probably kill him right where he

stood.

"How did she stow away?" Ranma asked, calming down a bit, "Did no one take my

advice into consideration?"

"She was accounted for for when everyone took off," Captain America said, "It

seems like she had managed to slip by that fact undetected,"

"How?" Ranma asked, "You better not tell me she cloned herself or something

cause that's just really messed up,"

"Nothing like that happened," Captain America said, "She had Franklin teleport

her onto one of the planes shortly after everyone else,"

"Franklin?" Ranma asked.

"Franklin Richards," Captain America said, "He's Mr. Fantastic's and Invisible

Woman's son,"

"Mr. Fantastic's and Invisible Woman's son?" Ranma smirked, "What's Franklin's

codename? The Fantastically Invisible Person?"

Jean and Psylocke giggled, finding the comment rather funny.

"No," Captain America didn't seem to find the comment all that amusing, "His

name's just Franklin. He's eight,"

"So, this Franklin kid has special powers?" Ranma asked, "Like teleportation?"

Captain America nodded, "Yes, among other things. Anyway, she somehow managed

to convince him to teleport her on the plane shortly after it left and had been

stowed away since until she was discovered not ten minutes ago,"

"How come no one noticed she was gone back at headquarters?" Ranma asked.

"I'm not too sure on the details," Captain America said, "It seems like she

managed to get no one to check up on her by making it indicated that she would

be watching two movies geared toward females,"

"Chick flicks, huh?" Ranma chuckled, "Now that I think of it, that's rather

smart,"

"You have nothing to worry about," Captain America said, "As soon as they land

and drop their equipment off, one of the members will fly the plane and Asuka

back to headquarters, not unless you want things done differently. If you want

to have her stay, we can have her stay as well,"

Ranma shook his head, "No, definitely not. I want her safely on a plane and

heading back towards headquarters. I don't want her there when the sentinels

arrive. This upcoming battle is going to be so intense that even I know it'd be

a stupid mistake on my behalf in believing I can protect her and having her

there instead,"

"Very well," Captain America said, "I'll tell them to have Asuka on the plane

heading back toward headquarters as soon as possible,"

Ranma smiled.

"Good,"

new stuff 9/14

"I don't see sentinels anymore," Ranma commented.

"That's because they're probably around fifteen minutes behind us," said Jean.

"We're traveling faster than the pursuing sentinels, and over the course of the

past few hours of running away, we've gained a considerable lead on them,"

"Are they still chasing us?" Ranma asked.

"Didn't you hear Captain America mention it?" Jean asked, "Don't you even pay

attention to what people say?"

"I try, but not all the time," Ranma said.

Ranma went back to looking out the window.

"Wow, look at that," he reached over to nudge someone. When he grabbed air, he

turned around and noticed Psylocke and Jean both leaning back in their seats,

clutching at their chests.

"Oh no, not again," Jean said, glaring at Ranma.

Ranma shrugged as he turned toward the window, "Look down below us. There are

probably a few hundred tanks,"

Jean and Psylocke scooted over and peered out the windows and did indeed see a

few hundred tanks scattered about on the open terrain that was Lanson Plateau.

The tanks looked to be scattered out randomly but were actually strategically

spread out.

Because of the light currently being emitted by the light source devices that

have been implanted, they were all able to see the Lanson Plateau like it was

some expansive icy tundra in the middle of the day. The entire vast open land

was light brightly, like the sun was directly overhead.

"Wow," Ranma was impressed.

Before him he could see the Wakandan Army. Tanks were spread out in that of a

very wide semi-circle around three planes. Hovering high above all those tanks

were around a doze giant warships that looked spherical in shape that seemed to

have cannons located everywhere on it. The warships were so large that they were

akin to that of a stadium in size and scope.

Hovering and flying above the tanks and below the warships were these planes

that looked like the Avengers' Quinjet and a jet fighter merged together.

There was a spot open for Captain America to land the plane among the other

planes.

"That's the Wakandan Army, or at least a contingent of it," Jean said.

"Impressive," Ranma said, "It's like a wall of ships and Army vehicles,"

"Hm, that's a smart formation," Ranma said.

"What do you mean?" Psylocke asked.

"It's the beginning stage for a pincer attack," Ranma said, "The sentinels

will be flying into a complete trap. Since they'll be following us, as they

arrive, the tanks on the outer edges would circle around toward their flanks and

their rear,"

Jean said, "Those are tanks Wakandan tanks. Black Panther is commanding them

and he's an excellent strategist,"

"Yeah, provided the sentinels actually do fly right into the trap," Ranma

grinned, "The formation is the best for setting up a trap, but it is also the

worst should that trap be realized since the tanks on the outer edges of the

semi-circle have no fire support. It's basically the best and worst of

formations. What are those things among those tanks?"

Ranma waved out the window toward all the Heroes that were gathered there

could be seen standing around the three planes, all of them wearing proper

attire for the cold environment. Ranma noticed all three of those planes looked

badly damaged.

"I don't think they see you," Jean said.

"Couldn't hurt to try," Ranma shrugged.

They watched as the tanks and planes grew larger and larger as the plane began

its slow descent toward the landing area. As they landed, they noticed that most

of the Heroes weren't paying all that much attention. They were gathered around

the back of one of the planes.

"Hey, why the hell are their three planes?" Ranma realized.

After the plane landed, the group exited to greet everyone.

Cyclops broke away from the group to greet them, carrying with him winter wear

for the group.

"I've got some bad news," Cyclops said, throwing some winter wear to the

group. He kissed Jean that seemed very happy to see him, glad to be able to be

within the male presence of someone other than Ranma.

"What is it?" Ranma asked, looking down at the winter wear for a moment before

tossing it back to Cyclops.

"What, you don't need it?" Cyclops asked curious.

Ranma shook his head, "No. I don't get cold,"

"Um, okay," Cyclops said, "Anyway, I have some bad news,"

"Does it have anything to do with the fact that there are three planes instead

of two?" Ranma gestured.

"Asuka's here," Cyclops said.

"What?" Ranma asked, getting angry, "I specifically told you-"

"Asuka was hurt," Cyclops said, "We needed to keep her here for medical

attention and tend to her wounds,"

"How'd she get hurt?" Ranma began walking by Cyclops, "Where is she?"

"She's on the plane," Cyclops said, "But don't worry, she's okay,"

Ranma shoved Cyclops away as walked past him. The shove had caught Cyclops by

surprise as he stumbled for his footing and ended up falling down onto the cold

ground.

Making his way past all the Heroes gathered around, he noticed that there were

quite a few there he didn't recognize. He assumed that they were all from the X-

Force or Defenders or Thunderbolts or Alpha Flight that Captain America had

mentioned to him before that would be there for the upcoming battle.

A large man that with white hair and a left eye that seemed to glow broke from

the group and approached Ranma, having seen what Ranma had done to Cyclops. He

came to stand in front of Ranma, causing him to stop.

Ranma regarded the man for a moment. The man was very large and he noticed

that part of the man's winterwear was missing, his left armsleeve missing to

reveal a metallic arm.

"I don't appreciate what you did to Cyclops," the man said in a gruff voice.

"And who the heck are you?" Ranma wasn't intimidated. The man stood almost a

foot taller than Ranma and was probably twice his size in mass, but Ranma seemed

rather annoyed toward the man for blocking him, "Back off, you're in my way,"

Jean walked up to the man, "Cable, it's okay,"

The man named Cable narrowed his eyes toward Ranma and sneered before stepping

toward the side to let Ranma walk by him toward the plane.

He could be seen turning toward Jean, "Who was that?"

"That was Ranma," Cyclops said, approaching Cable and Jean, brushing some ice

from his jacket.

"I don't care who that man is," Cable said, "You shouldn't let him shove you

like that,"

Cyclops laughed, "Thanks for the lecture, son, I'll keep that in mind,"

Cable was Cyclops' son but sent into the distant future to save his life,

brought back to this timeline long after he had aged older than his father. Jean

had mentioned who he was to Ranma on the plane but Ranma seemed to have

forgotten.

Cable chuckled slightly at the comment as he and Cyclops greeted Jean like a

family reunion. Jean didn't stand around long to chat because she was concerned

for Asuka and wanted to see if she could help.

Ranma rushed past the group of Heroes standing patiently about, ignoring some

greetings they said to him. No one outside the X-Men and Avengers really knew

who Ranma was nor he them. At the moment, he didn't care to stop and chat and

find out who everyone there were and their names.

As he walked along, he caught sight of several familiar faces that he hadn't

seen in a bit like Magneto and Juggernaut and such.

"What the?" he looked toward them.

After a moment, he dismissed his surprise and crossed the distance from his

plane to the other plane where Asuka was said to be.

Entering the back of the plane, he immediately spotted Asuka sitting on an

empty crate that used to hold anti-suppressor devices. A couple X-Men and

Avengers were standing around her and she could be seen wearing a small bandage

over her head and her right arm in a cast.

"What happened?" Ranma approached her, concern in her voice, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Asuka said, feeling very embarrassed.

Storm said, "Our group was the first to arrive. Unfortunately, Magneto and his

Acolytes were expecting us and attacked us,"

"Acolytes?" Ranma asked.

She-Hulk smirked, "Think of 'em as his followers,"

"Fine," Ranma said, "But why did they attack?"

"A case of misunderstanding," Storm said, "It seems like they thought we were

a part of Apocalypse's army and had come here to assassinate him. They attacked

us first and Asuka was bounced around in our plane and suffered some minor

injuries but needed medical attention,"

Ranma said, "Forget about Magneto, I'll deal with him later. Keep going on,"

"We all arrived at around the same time," Storm said, "We actually met up with

Black Panther and his Wakandan Army on the way to Antarctica and headed for our

destination together. It turns out that Magneto's base is located very close to

here and seems like the way we came in force created the misunderstanding that

we were Apocalypse's army here to take Magneto out,"

"So he attacked you guys and Asuka got hurt in the process?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Storm said, "She suffered a concussion and a hairline fracture of her

right radius,"

"How did this happen?" he asked.

"We were forced to do some evasive maneuvers and Asuka wasn't strapped in and

was banged up within the cabin," Storm answered, "Magneto was soon overwhelmed

as subdued, thanks mostly to Black Panther and his Wakandan Army. After Magneto

was subdued, it was realized that he was aware of Apocalypse's actions and he

was worried as well as to what he was up to,"

"So, how do you feel, Asuka?" Ranma asked the young girl.

"I'm fine," she seemed very embarrassed, "I didn't realize it was going to

turn out like this,"

Ranma smiled warmly, "Don't worry, it's okay," He looked at Storm, "So, lemme

guess, you guys and Magneto now have some kind of alliance? I saw him among the

groups of people hanging around," Ranma smirked.

Cyclops entered the plane, "Yes. Friend or foe, we all have a common enemy and

that's Apocalypse. Although Magneto and us are usually fighting against each

other, we have come to a reluctant truce,"

"What's our situation?" Ranma asked.

"Asuka's fine but we couldn't fly her away from here until we were sure she

was okay," Storm said, "We actually didn't have the medical supplies on this

plane to fix her up right away. We had to wait until we had landed and were able

to get her to the medics accompanying the Wakandan Army. They fixed her up and

we are about to take off now to bring her back until you just showed up,"

Ranma said, "Okay, I understand. Who's flying her back?"

"I will," She-Hulk said, "I don't mind brining her back,"

"Well, you better take off now," Cyclops said, "Those sentinels were right

behind you guys and will be upon this location at any minute,"

"You guys better take off now," Captain America said to She-Hulk.

"Wait," Ranma said, "If you guys leave now, what with the sentinels being so

close, is there a chance that you guys can get shot down?"

She-Hulk said, "Not likely. I'll fly directly away from the sentinels and

round Antarctica and stared heading north toward Australia where I'll head

toward the United States from there,"

"Why do you say not likely?" Ranma said.

"Well, all three of our planes were damaged in the battle against Magneto,"

She-Hulk said.

Ranma muttered, "Naturally, just our luck it seems. Lemme guess, the only

plane that we can take out of her is the plane I and the others arrived in and

that one's low on fuel,"

She-Hulk shook her head, "Actually, that could be the case. However, our

planes were damaged, but not completely grounded. We suffered some hull damage

and such so none of our planes can undergo high supersonic velocities,"

Ranma sighed, "Great, just great. That means if any sentinels decide to pursue

the plane, there's no way you guys can outrun them, huh?"

"Unfortunately, no," She-Hulk said, "But you guys will be holding them off.

It's likely that the sentinels will be too busy dealing with everyone here to

chase after us,"

Ranma thought about it for a moment.

"Forget it," Ranma said.

"What?" everyone asked.

"Forget it," he said again, "Let Asuka stay. I'll take care of her,"

"R-Ranma," Asuka's eyes showed surprise.

Ranma said, "I don't want to risk the plane getting shot down by pursuing

sentinels. It's too risky. I don't want to put your or Asuka's lives in danger,"

Cyclops asked, "So what do you propose?"

"I'll watch over Asuka," Ranma said, "I'll take her to a safe location and

just wait it out until the battle is over,"

"S-so you're just going to leave us?" Cyclops said in shock, "You're not going

to fight with us?"

"What, don't you have enough people around here?" Ranma asked, "It's not like

you really need me, do you?"

Cyclops said, "Well, we were expecting you to be fighting along us. You are

the most capable of taking down those sentinels, and the fact that you can't be

taken out, as Captain America had mentioned, will mean you can draw their fire,"

"So, what, I'm the bait?" Ranma smirked, "That's kinda messed up. Now you

don't rely on your own powers, but you rely on someone else's. Sorry, I'm not

interested, you guys can probably do well without me. You have anti-suppressor

devices and those Savage Land vibranium weapons,"

"But still," Storm jumped in, "Your help is invaluable,"

"We can assign a few team members to watch out for her," Cyclops said, "We can

make it their sole task,"

Ranma laughed, "Right, just like how your sole task was to prevent her from

coming here in the first place and fucking that up. No thanks,"

Cyclops said nothing for a moment, "Is there any way to change your mind?"

Ranma looked around, "Where's Thor?"

"I am here," Thor emerged from a nearby group.

"Thor, I want you to be in charge of watching over Asuka and keeping her

safe," Ranma told him.

"Yes, sir," Thor said, "I'll protect her with my life,"

"You're not to leave her, y'hear?" Ranma said, "Don't go playing hero and try

and take out any sentinel that gets close to you. If you see someone coming

close to you, you grab her and make a break for it,"

"I understand, I'll do that," Thor said.

Everyone nearby said nothing, in a state of shock of how Ranma seemed to have

just commanded the Asgardian god known as Thor what to do. And what was even

more surprising was that Thor seemed actually to act as if he was honored with

such a request.

"Where's Nightcrawler?" Ranma looked around.

"Here," Nightcrawler raised a hand, emerging from a nearby group after hearing

someone looking for him.

"I want you to watch over Asuka as well," Ranma told him.

Nightcrawler looked at Cyclops and seemed to receive a nod from the man,

"Okay,"

"You and Thor will be in charge of watching over her," Ranma said, "The two of

you have impressed me with what you are capable of. Surely you'd be able to do

the same in protecting Asuka,"

Asuka felt mortified. She was being such a burden. Because of her, Thor and

Nightcrawler will not be helping out in the battle. Instead, they will be stuck

being her escort.

It made her realize she had made a big mistake in coming along.

Ranma walked over to where Asuka was, "No need to be embarrassed. It was a

mistake. You just wanted to be here with me but that can't be the case, not with

such an upcoming battle,"

Asuka blushed, unable to say anything. She really did want to be with Ranma.

Actually, she never liked not being close to him. She hated the thought of him

going to somewhere without her, let alone going off to battle. Afterall, she and

Ranma had seen their fair share of battles together.

Ranma headed for the exit, passing by Thor and Nightcrawler, "Take good care

of her,"

"Okay," Thor and Nightcrawler said.

A man appeared from the crowd and entered the plane, "I couldn't help

overhearing your conversation. I would like to help,"

Ranma regarded the man. He was clad in a black skin-tight outfit and a mask

that covered his face and a black mask. The man looked rather menacing.

"Who the heck are you?" Ranma asked.

"I am Black Panther," the man said.

"The ruler of Wakanda?" Ranma asked, "You're the dude that brought all those

tanks and planes and such?"

The man nodded.

"How can you help?" Ranma asked.

"We can have her placed on one of my warships," Black Panther said.

"You mean one of those giant ships hovering above this location?" Ranma

pointed upward.

The man nodded.

Ranma thought about it for a moment before saying, "No thanks. I don't know

who you are and I don't trust your ships. They look powerful, but that doesn't

mean anything to me,"

"What?" Black Panther was surprised at the comment.

"I dunno how powerful your ships are, but I don't particularly care to leave

Asuka in flying target," Ranma said, "Those warships are probably going to be

the first things attacked and taken down by the sentinels,"

Black Panther smile, "I would like to say that you underestimate the power of

the Wakandan Army,"

"And you of the sentinel army," Ranma said, "I've dealt with them and those

damn sentinels are nothing like I've ever faced before. They're not that hard to

beat individually, but when they team up on you, it's a pain in the ass,"

"Be that as it may, I believe your companion will be safe in the warships,"

Black Panther said, "My offer still stands,"

"Thanks but no thanks," Ranma said.

Nightcrawler said, "Ranma, you would rather Thor and I be in charge of

watching over Asuka over that of a Wakandan warship? I'm sure we're flattered

that you would choose us over such a vessel, but I think you're putting far too

much faith in us,"

Ranma waved a dismissive hand, "Nonsense. Y'should give yourselves more

credit. I've seen the both of you in action and I'm sure you two will be just

fine,"

"Here they come," Cyclops said, he gaze toward the distant horizon.

Everyone turned their attention toward the skies as well where they caught

sight of a very dreadful sight, a sky filled with specks of dots, each dot

representing a sentinel.

"Everyone! Move out!" Cable barked out orders toward his team and nearby

teams.

An immediate scrambled could be seen as all the Heroes could be seen blending

in with the tanks and planes. The Heroes and super villains that couldn't fly

seemed to blend in among the large group of tanks while those that could fly

took to the skies to accompany the planes already flying about.

Ranma looked back toward Asuka where Nightcrawler and Thor could be seen

gently helping her to her feet.

"Don't fail me guys," Ranma said to them.

"We will protect her with our lives," Thor said.

"You can count on us," Nightcrawler said, feeling more confident. If Ranma

believed he and Thor would be able to carry out their tasks well, then so should

he.

Ranma placed a hand on Asuka's head, giving it a rub and messing up her hair.

"Well, I'm off to kick some sentinel ass. I'll be back later,"

Everyone, save for Ranma, possessed Savage Land vibranium weapons. The dozen

or so mutants that were there also wore anti-suppressor devices, a small

component that was roughly the size of a box of cigarettes that could be worn

anywhere on the body.

Mutants such as Magneto and such were even given the anti-suppressor devices

as well as weaponry. However, unlike the weapons all the Heroes were given, all

the super villains were given time based weapons that would last for an extended

period of time before they would cease to function, everyone knowing full well

that they would exploit those weapons at the very first chance they had.

Ranma didn't need them. It would actually take him longer to take down a

sentinel that way than using his bare hands.

Ranma stood where he was and watched as a massive surge of Wakandan tanks

rolled right by him, heading forward in a uniform formation to battle the

incoming sentinels. The ground rumbled as the tank treads bit into the icy

ground, tank engines roaring, drowning out all other sounds.

Looking ahead, he could see the backs of the tanks racing by him as well as

the backs of Heroes and super villains rushing ahead as well, all of them

incapable of flight, some of them him never ever having met. They rushed ahead

among the tanks, some of them actually as large tanks, some of them much

smaller, like Logan.

His eyes widened as he saw to of the Heroes by the name of Atlas and Goliath

grow huge in size, growing so large that they seemed to almost become as large

as sentinels themselves, almost a hundred feet tall each.

"Damn, I've never seen that before," Ranma was surprised but impressed, "Wow,

maybe I haven't seen as much stuff around over the years as I believed I've

seen,"

Ranma gazed upward as he saw what was probably a hundred Wakandan planes,

Talon Fighters that were very much like the Avengers' Quinjet except much

faster, better armored, and more heavily armed, all taking off straight ahead,

the fastest attackers around, there to lead the charge and assume the front

lines of attack. Heroes and super villains alike, all of them capable of flight,

could be seen flying among the planes toward their opponents.

Sounds of cannon fire could be heard as the Wakandan warships seemed to open

fire, firing massive long-ranged salvos toward the group of sentinels. They

seemed to fire everything they had all in unison, firing massive conventional

shells as well as energy blasts, erupting the skies surrounding the specks of

dots with explosions.

After everyone seemed to have moved on ahead to intercept the rush of incoming

sentinels, Ranma glanced backwards toward the wide stretch of icy land behind

him, right toward where the four planes were.

He smiled as he saw Thor carrying Asuka away from the raging battle. Oddly

enough, Thor ran rather quickly for such a large man. Ranma had thought Thor

relied purely on flight to get him to where he needed to go, but it seemed like

Thor didn't need to rely the power of his Hammer all the time.

Nightcrawler could be seen running along side the two of them, easily falling

behind, unable to run as fast. However, it seemed like whenever Nightcrawler

fell too far behind, he would teleport himself closer and resume running.

They could both be seen running in the direction of a mountain range several

miles away from there. The mountain range was the only surface elevation within

a wide expanse of flat land that was the Lanson Plateau.

Ranma smirked, "Heh, I wonder how long Thor's gonna run before he decides to

just say fuck it and fly instead,"

After a few minutes, Ranma laughed as he saw Thor take to the skies, flying

toward the mountain range, Nightcrawler hitching a ride by grabbing onto the

same arm Thor was using to hold onto Asuka.

When the three of them seemed to very far away, Ranma smiled and turned his

attention forward toward the battle at hand.

Cracking his knuckles, Ranma began walking in the direction of the raging

battle.

"Let's party,"

new stuff 9/15

Ranma was startled when his headset device suddenly started smoking against

his ears. He quickly removed it and threw it to the ground, wondering what had

just happened.

Looking at it, he immediately realized that the sentinels must have let loose

a burst from their built-in EMP generators and destroyed all unprotected

electronics within fifteen miles from the battle field. Of course, considering

the Lanson Plateau was pretty desolate, there was nothing to worry about.

Gazing ahead, Ranma noticed the battle raging on, the Wakandan Army still

fighting hard. Seeing that made him realize that the Wakandan Army seemed a lot

more powerful and prepared than he had expected. It seemed like the army had

protective shielding from the EMP generator bursts since no vehicles or such

seemed to have been effected and continued to fight.

The Wakandan Army seemed extremely well prepared, using some odd kind of

weaponry Ranma had never seen before. The tanks, having gotten in close enough,

seemed to shoot some kind of goo-like shells that splattered all over the

sentinels when it struck.

"Well I'll be, those tanks are using some kinda adhesive weaponry," Ranma

smiled, extremely impressed at that Black Panther person for using that kind of

strategy. The adhesive seemed to stick to the sentinels and prevent them from

moving or at least making them more sluggish.

Unfortunately, as brilliant as a plan as it may be, Ranma felt that it would

be a lost cause. He noticed that it probably took a good twenty or so adhesive

shells from tanks to cover an entire sentinel up and prevent it from being able

to move. And what was worse was that, as big as the sentinels were, some shells

actually missed them and landed on the battle field, turning the point of impact

into a trap. Should anyone or anything walk over the adhesive, they would become

entrapped and unable to move.

He couldn't help but feel that this battle was epic in scope, that it seemed

like it was the world versus the army of adamantium sentinels. The sentinels

were definitely tougher than anything Ranma could readily remember. An

individual sentinel reminded him of an individual EVA, an EVA with built-in

weaponry.

"Damn, I think one sentinel can take on an EVA," Ranma realized. EVAs had no

form of built-in weaponry and its armor could be broken through, given enough

force.

Of course, the EVAs had AT Fields which definitely worked in their favor over

sentinels. But since sentinels had adamantium armor, that was probably

equivalent to AT Fields as well.

Ranma banished the thought, realizing that he was needed in battle.

He sprinted in the direction of battle, reaching the middle of the fray in a

few seconds. He took a running leap high in the air and landed on one of the

sentinels' feet.

Punching a fist right through the adamantium armoring all the way up to his

elbow, Ranma angled his hand upward toward the sentinels' torso and let loose a

massive ki-blast. In an instant, the sentinel was destroyed from within, falling

down to the ground below.

"Oh shit!" Ranma's eyes widened, looking down and realizing there were several

Wakandan tanks.

Realizing he had very little time, Ranma quickly ran down around the foot of

the sentinel and angled his body toward the ground and kicked out, propelling

himself down toward the ground at a rapid rate.

Twisting skillfully in air just mere feet from the ground, Ranma landed softly

and faced the direction of the tanks, letting loose a massive horizontal

whirlwind blast from his fists, sending the tanks flying away from the nearby

area.

With the tanks safely blown away from the pointed of impact, Ranma looked up

to see the sentinel come crashing down on him.

"This is probably gonna hurt," Ranma closed his eyes and braced for the

impact.

The sentinel crashed to the ground and on top of Ranma with thunderous force,

creating a shockwave that shook the ground like a massive explosion. Weighing

around a thousand tons in weight as well as over a hundred feet in size, a

sentinel crashing to the ground made everyone on the ground what they were doing

to keep afoot.

Soldiers could be seen climbing out of the tank that Ranma had blown away from

the crash sight and pulling out hand guns and firing up into the skies. Because

the tanks had been blown out of the way with Ranma's horizontal whirlwind blast,

then ended up landing on the ground upside-down and on its side, no longer of

use. Even though the tanks were no longer of use, the Wakandan soldiers manning

them were alive and well and continued to fight.

Nearby, Captain America couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as he

continued to fire his Savage Land vibranium toward the closest sentinel.

Standing close by was Iron Man as he fired his Savage Land vibranium weapon as

well.

Wakandan planes were being downed one right after another by sentinel energy

blasts. Several sentinels each could be seen standing on top of the warships

firing energy weapons down toward the warships itself. Tanks were being shot and

blown up as well, some of them being destroyed as a few sentinels walked the

battlefield and just stepped on them.

"These weapons are doing NOTHING to them!" Captain America realized after a

few minutes of intense battling. Everyone possessing the Savage Land vibranium

weapons had been firing upon the sentinels non-stop but that didn't work.

Oddly enough, Captain America actually still possessed his shield, several

sentinels having tried to used their built-in Molecular Rearrangers to

assimilate its adamantium for their own but failing. The shield seemed

impervious even to such means. Perhaps the shield had unique properties, a

result of Ranma's tampering with the shield a while back when he had

accidentally pierced it with an adamantium bar and used his powers to fix it.

Iron Man said, "The sentinels are using their built-in Molecular Rearragers to

counteract the weapons. We've never ever anticipated something like this. As we

are melting them with our weapons, other sentinels are using their Molecular

Rearrangers to basically 'heal' the adamantium back into its form again,"

"Give me some time, I need to think of something," Captain America said,

jumping away as one sentinel noticed him and started firing after him. He was

instantly given some breathing room as Iron Man fired a few rockets toward the

attacking sentinel to draw its fire. When he did, he used his propulsion jets to

fly him away from danger, the sentinel still chasing him, taking flightly.

"This is bad!" She-Hulk said, pausing a moment to tell Captain America, "It

seems like our-"

"I know, our weapons are having no effect," Captain America interrupted,

waving a hand, "It's because of those damn built-in Molecular Rearrangers those

sentinels have! As we start hurting them, in comes one of its brethren to use a

Molecular Rearranger on it and 'heal' its armor back to normal. We need to train

our weapons on them for around a minute before we can burn a hole through a

sentinel's armor so that someone can attack it from within, but our attacks are

thwarted when in comes another sentinel to stop it as well as shoot at us,"

A blast erupted nearby, both Captain America and She-Hulk getting blown away.

They both tumbled around twenty feet to a halt. She-Hulk could be seen getting

up to her feet, looking around for her friend, concern in on her visage.

"Are you okay?" She-Hulk asked when she saw Captain America, his uniform torn

up and several large cuts on his body.

"I'm fine," Captain America said, wincing in pain, "We need to come up with a

new plan to deal with this situation. I've thought of something,"

"I'm all ears," She-Hulk said.

"We can't try and attack sentinels on an individual basis," Captain America

said, "We need to pool our weapons together and use them all at once on one

sentinel at a time. That way, even the Molecular Rearrangers being used won't be

fast enough to 'heal' them,"

"And if more than one sentinels uses it?" She-Hulk said.

"Then we are really screwed," Captain America said in dread, "Let's hope the

sentinels don't do that,"

She-Hulk ran off to relay the messages, to rally the troops and get everyone

closer together so they could attack one sentinel at a time.

Captain America couldn't help but feel like they were in way over their head.

The sentinels had so much going in their favor. Because they were made of

adamantium, they just fired upon anything that moved. Friendly fire was not an

issue since their adamantium armor would protect them from whatever friendly

fire that struck them.

The sheer quantity of sentinels was enough to make all the Heroes and super

villains gulp in nervousness. The sentinels were implementing a crude sense of

teamwork. They attacked anything based on proximity, but because they were all

bunched closely together, anyone getting close to them would be attacked by

multiple sentinels.

If someone, like Logan, were to somehow jump onto a sentinel and begin slicing

at it, a nearby sentinel would just shoot him off simply because of proximity.

It wasn't because the sentinel was helping a fellow brethren, but the

programming made it seems like it was.

Captain America rubbed at his sore shoulder and glanced over toward where the

sentinel had fallen from the sky, wondering who had managed to destroy one of

them. Did several of the Heroes or super villains already figure out the

situation at hand and came up with the same plan he had come up with?

When Ranma could be seen ripping an opening from the inside out, Captain

America realized that Ranma seemed to have been the only person in the battle

that had actually managed to take down a sentinel. The sentinel had landed on

its stomach and Ranma could be seen climbing out from within and onto the

sentinel's back.

He ran across the battle field and up the sentinel as Ranma stood upon its

back.

"Damn, these guys are a pain in the ass," Ranma was muttering under his

breath.

Once he was outside, he looked up toward the hundreds and hundreds of

sentinels flying overhead. Some were so high up that they looked like specks of

dots. Some flew so low that that he could feel the air wake created behind

sentinels flying by.

Realizing that he only had a limited time before sentinels would pick up on

the fallen brethren and use their Molecular Rearrangers to melt it and

assimilate the adamantium, Ranma went about ripping chunks of hand-sized

adamantium pieces from the armor.

Captain America watched in shock, feeling surreal as he saw Ranma throw the

pieces he had ripped up and threw it toward a sentinel nearby that was on the

group as it proceeded to use its massive size to stomp Wakandan tanks flat, its

body more than half covered with adhesive material. The thrown projectiles hit

several vital areas on the sentinel's body, ceasing its functions immediately

and rendering it useless.

Unfortunately, the sentinel fell forward where it crashed down on several

hapless tanks, but not before the soldiers manning them had managed to climb out

and run away before that happened.

Ranma smirked. He had downed his second sentinel in around just as many

minutes since he entered the fray. Oddly enough, unbeknownst to Ranma, it was

half the amount of sentinels that all Heroes and super villains and Wakandan

Army combined had taken down.

"Ranma! We have big trouble!" Captain America ran up to the side of the

sentinel Ranma was on and shouted out to him above the battle noise, "The

sentinels are using their Molecular Rearrangers to 'heal' each other. Our Savage

Land vibranium weapons are not effective enough to take them down!"

Ranma turned toward Captain America, regarding him for a moment.

He pointed toward his ear and said something in Japanese.

"Sorry, but my headset device is broken so I don't understand a word you're

saying," was what Ranma said in his native language.

The blood drained from Captain America's face. He had been told of the

language barrier and how Ranma needed a headset device to translate English for

him. Otherwise, the only way to communicate with him was in Japanese.

Captain America quickly looked around for someone that could speak Japanese.

He spotted Logan on the ground, rubbing his head after having been sent flying

by a rocket blast that struck the ground near him.

He quickly ran over to where Logan was as the man got to his feet.

"Logan, I need your help," Captain America said.

"I'm kinda busy, bub," Logan said, shaking the cobwebs from his head, "It

seems like our weapons don't work. Those damn sentinels are somehow-"

"Using the Molecular Rearrangers to 'heal' themselves," Captain America

finished for him.

Logan smirked, "Right. It seems like all of us are starting to realize this,"

Captain America gestured toward Ranma as he could be seen hopping off a

sentinel as it seemed to melt as a sentinel used its built-in Molecular

Rearranger to do so.

"You need to tell Ranma," Captain America said, "He's not using a weapon so

he's not aware of it,"

Logan lunged toward Captain America, the two of them going tumbling a few

dozen yards as a rocket exploded on the ground right by where Captain America

said.

"Thanks, Logan, I owe you," Captain America said, getting to his feet.

"Yeah, y'do, if we survive this," Logan got to his feet, "Why didn't you tell

Ranma about this?"

Captain America said, "His headset device seems to have been destroyed. I

think it's from an EMP burst but I'm not too sure. He can't understand what I'm

trying to say to him,"

"That's cause he only understands Japanese," Logan said.

"I know," Captain America said, "You know Japanese. Go tell him,"

"Aye aye, leader," Logan smirked, running off in the direction of Ranma.

Captain America looked up just as he caught sight of an incoming rocket. He

tried to leap out of the way but his body wasn't responding the way it was

supposed to, already beaten and battered from being blown through the air before

when he had been talking to She-Hulk.

The rocket struck the ground right in front of Captain America, sending man

was flying backwards through the air where he landed hard on his back, tumbling

a few dozen yards on the icy ground to a halt, unconscious.

Ranma ran across the battle field and jumped up and landed on the sentinel

trying to assimilate the adamantium from the first sentinel he had downed. Just

as he was about to punch a hole through its feet and send a wicked ki-blast out,

he was struck in the side of the body with a well-aimed energy blast, send

crashing to the ground below.

Logan had been running toward Ranma when he saw this happened and winced,

wondering if anyone could survive a direct hit like Ranma had taken. A look of

shock came across Logan's face as he saw Ranma climbing back up to his feet,

seemingly unfazed.

"Motherfucker!" Logan heard Ranma sneer skyward toward the sentinel as it

continued to assimilate the adamantium.

"Ranma!" Logan said in Japanese as he ran up to him.

Ranma stopped looking upward to look at Logan.

"Hey, Logan, how's everything going?" Ranma asked, "How goes your fight

against the sentinels? These guys are a bitch, aren't they? I only took down two

so far,"

"That's half the amount as EVERYONE combined," Logan said.

"How's that possible?" Ranma asked, "Don't you guys have someone like Magneto?

Doesn't he control magnetism or such? He should be able to rip these guys to

shreds,"

Logan said, "He was the one that managed to take out two sentinels. He ripped

two of them apart but was taken down by a sentinel. They're overwhelming us with

sheer numbers. Magneto can take on sentinels one-on-one with no problem, but

with so many attacking him at once, he is no better off at defending himself

than anyone else,"

"Jeez," Ranma said, "I didn't really it was that bad,"

"It's even worse," Logan said.

"How? What's the matter?" Ranma asked.

"They're using their Molecular Rearrangers to 'heal' themselves," Logan said,

"Our Savage Land vibranium weapons are having no effect?"

"How come?" Ranma asked.

A rocket struck nearby, sending both the unsuspecting Ranma and Logan flying.

They both twisted in the air and landed on their feet. Ranma was unscathed but

Logan wasn't. His face and body had a bunch of shrapnel wounds on it.

Ranma couldn't help but watch in fascination as Logan's superhealing mutant

abilities made his wounds instantly heal right before his very eyes.

"Damn, that's really cool," Ranma commented, "Anyway, why aren't the weapons

working?"

"Because, the sentinels are using their built-in Molecular Rearrangers to

'heal' themselves," Logan said, "Our weapons do have an effect but the Molecular

Rearrangers actually 'heal' them faster than we can do damage,"

Ranma's face showed a sign of great concern, "T-that's horrible!"

"ALL of the teams are bein' overwhelmed," Logan said, "The few people that

COULD make a diff'rence aren't here, like Silver Surfer of the Defenders team.

He's probably in the Andromeda Galaxy right now on his way here,"

"Silver Surfer?" Ranma asked.

"A really powerful person," Logan said flatly, "We are also in trouble b'cause

of friendly fire. Those adhesive shells the Wakandan tanks have managed to stop

three sentinels from moving, but they can still shoot. And it also doesn't help

that one of those adhesive shells missed and took out some of our own guys, like

Dr. Strange while he was casting a spell and such. He would've been able to

probably use his magic to take out more than just one sentinel before he was

taken out,"

"Dr. Strange?" Ranma asked.

"Look, t'put things in simple terms, we are getting overwhelmed by these damn

sentinels," Logan said, "The few people here that actually CAN fight an

adamantium sentinel are easily overwhelmed by the fact that there are so many,"

"You just mentioned how three out of four sentinels were taken out," Ranma

asked curiously, "How did the forth one get taken out?"

"A girl named Shadowcat," Logan said, "She can phase and simply phased right

through a sentinel and took out a sentinel from within. Unfortunately, once

again, she was taken out before she could take out any more,"

"Yeah, there's way too many of 'em," Ranma said, "Their numbers are mind-

blowing. They're not that hard to beat, but their numbers is what's so hard to

get by?"

Logan smirked, "Not that hard to beat for you maybe, but just one adamantium

sentinel can probably take out a good deal of us before we stop it. They're both

tough and there are many of 'em,"

Ranma said, "Man, now that I think about it, if I wasn't able to brush things

off like I can, I probably would've been taken out before I managed to down any

more than one sentinel,"

Logan smirked, "A thousand regular non-adamantium sentinels can probably give

most of the world's Heroes and the Wakandan Army combined a run for their money.

We're dealing with a thousand adamantium sentinels. We're definitely overwhelmed

here,"

Adamantium changed the way the battle was being fought. Sentinels could fire

upon anything with extreme prejudice and not have to worry about taking

themselves meant the possibility of having sentinels destroy themselves

impossible. And to make matters worse, their built-in Molecular Rearrangers made

it all the harder to destroy.

The sentinels were able to brush off devastatingly powerful blasts, even able

to brush off direct hits in the chest from the Wakandan warships. The blast only

sending them flying off them where the ones blown away would be replaced by more

sentinels.

Logan turned his attention toward something.

"As if things couldn't get worse, it seems like it has," Logan gasped. For a

man that had been through quite a bit in his life, there were little things out

there that can really freak him out. What he was witnessing was definitely

something to be freaked out about.

Ranma looked toward whatever Logan was looking at and caught sight of a giant

warship a good distance away starting to descend down on the battle field. It

seemed like one of them had taken too much damage from the multiple sentinels

standing on top of it and firing down on it, that its engines finally were

finally giving out, the warship unable to sustain flight.

"Holy shit!" Ranma gasped.

They both watched as a giant warship crashed down on the ground. So large in

size and weight, it was basically that of a flying naval battleship crash on the

ground. Weighing what was close to eighty thousand tones each, it crashed into

the ground with so much force that it caused an ice ripple akin to that of a

ripple in a pond to expand outward in every direction, shaking the ground in its

wake. Some tanks were flipped over as the ground broke beneath its treads and

moved upward a few feet before it came back down and settled.

The shaking had been so violent that the entire battlefield seemed to pause

for a moment as even sentinels on the ground had to stop what they were doing to

adjust its balance to keep from toppling over.

When the shaking reached them, Ranma and Logan both fell to the ground, unable

to stay afoot, much like all the other Heroes and super villains.

Ranma got up to his feet, feeling sorry for the thousands of Wakandan soldiers

manning the warship that had lost their lives. All that remained was nothing

more than a pile of devastated metal. However, among those remains were about a

dozen destroyed sentinels that happened to have been underneath the warship as

it crashed down upon them. Even though those sentinels were made of adamantium,

the sheer impact if the sentinels crashing into the ground with so much weight

coming down on top of them would definitely destroy their internal circuitry.

It was similar to a nuclear bomb used on a sentinel. Even though the

adamantium was strong enough to sustain impact from a nuclear bomb, the impact

would be enough to damage all its internal circuitry. Sentinel technology made

it so that sentinels did have extremely reliable and tough internal circuitry,

but that didn't mean such circuitry were immune to devastating impacts.

"Damn, there could've been a chance Asuka could've been on that ship," Ranma

realized. He was glad he didn't trust Black Panther and take him up on his offer

to let Asuka be placed on the warship.

"You seem to be the only one here capable of taking down sentinels," Logan

said, "I think y'should take the reigns and lead everyone against them. I'm sure

they'll all follow your lead,"

Ranma said, "Hey, we can try and draw one sentinel from battle at a time. That

way, if there aren't any other sentinels nearby, we don't hafta worry about it

'healing' the one we attack,"

"Sounds like a plan," Logan began heading off, "I'll go tell the others,"

Logan didn't get far before a rocket struck the ground right near him, sending

him flying where he tumbled on the ground around twenty feet to a halt.

Ranma rushed toward him, concerned about Logan. He stopped when he saw Logan

getting back up to his feet, shake the cobwebs from his head, and then continue

on running.

"Man, that Logan, what a tough guy," Ranma chuckled.

An energy projectile struck Ranma from behind, sending him flying forward to

which he twisted in the air and landed on his feet, an annoyed look on his face.

The blast made him realize that now was not the time to just stand around doing

nothing.

Turning his attention toward the sentinel that had struck him from behind,

Ranma sprinted toward it and as it hovered in the air. At the moment, it had

Rogue standing on top of its shoulder punching at its neck area.

It seemed like Rogue had discovered that the Savage Land vibranium weapon

didn't work as well as expected and abandoned it for some good old fashion

slugging. Unfortunately, it was completely ineffective since her super powerful

punches weren't even denting the adamantium armor.

The sentinel suddenly generated a massive all-body electrical charge that

seemed to electrocute Rogue with such effectiveness that she fell off the

sentinel's shoulder unconscious.

Ranma quickly sprinted ahead and leapt into the air, catching her as she fell.

He landed safely on his feet, Rogue in her arms and slowly coming back to

consciousness, feeling heavily disoriented.

"You okay?" he asked.

Rogue took a moment to gather her thoughts. When she did, she noticed she was

in Ranma's arms as Ranma seemed to be in the process of dodging sentinel fire,

constantly leaping backwards as missiles and energy blasts miss him.

"Ranma," she said.

"Y'got knocked out for a minute," Ranma said, "It seems like those sentinels

have some kinda feature that makes their entire body electric to electrocute

anyone that tries to climb on it,"

After a moment, he realized she wasn't going to understand him since there was

that language barrier. He needed to somehow convey the plan at hand to her even

though he couldn't speak English.

He placed her on the ground as she seemed to realized where she was and what

she had been doing. As he did so, he turned around and swatted a sphere of

energy that had been shot right at him from behind, sending it right back into

the sentinel. Although the adamantium protected it from the blast, the impact

sent the sentinel crashing to the ground, most likely taking out several hapless

tanks in the process.

"Goddamn, they're so big," Ranma muttered in annoyance, "Even if I destroy

them, their bodies falling down still causes lots of damage," He turned toward

Rogue who was looking at him in confusion, wondering what he was saying in

Japanese.

"Logan! Logan!" Ranma said the name loudly toward Rogue, hoping the name he

said would make her realize that he wanted her to go find Logan. That way, Logan

could relay the plan to her and everyone else.

Rogue nodded her head, believing Ranma wanted her to go find Logan. She didn't

know what he had said before, but she recognized him trying to say Logan's name.

She quickly took off in search of Logan.

Ranma turned around and sprinted toward the sentinel as it lay on its back,

the one he had knocked out of the sky, leaping up into the air and landing on

its chest. As the sentinel got back up onto its feet, Ranma climbed up the chest

and took on a position on the sentinel's shoulder.

He punched a hole into the sentinels shoulder. However, rather than let loose

a ki-blast to destroy the sentinel from within, he proceeded to rip off a few

chucks of its armor.

Ranma grinned, "Your buddies will only use their Molecular Rearrangers on you

to assimilate your adamantium after you are no longer functioning. I'll just

leave you alone to keep that from happening,"

He chucked several adamantium pieces toward a nearby sentinel as it flew

overhead, destroying it. It end up crashing to the ground nearby, taking out

several tanks and even a few planes in the process.

Ranma sighed, feeling extremely sympathetic. It was as if for every one

sentinel he took out, a couple tanks would be taken out as well, no matter what.

And what was worse was that the soldiers in the tanks was guaranteed death

should a sentinel fall on them.

The sentinel Ranma was on, realizing that someone was on it, sent out an

massive electrical current throughout its outer body to electrocute Ranma and

knock him out. Ranma just stood there and let himself get electrocuted.

"Ha, is that the best you can do?" Ranma laughed.

Ranma went about ripping off more pieces of the sentinel armor off, throwing

them toward another sentinel and achieving the same results. He managed to take

out two more sentinels in this fashion before a missile struck the sentinel's

head, the blast sending Ranma spiraling all the way down to the ground over a

hundred below.

"This sucks," Ranma muttered, "There are so many goddamn sentinels that I'm

always getting knocked around! They're just shooting everywhere!"

Ranma knew that the sentinels did this because none of them needed to worry

about friendly fire. Should their own weapon systems be used on each other

accidentally, it would cause no harm.

Landing safely on the ground, Ranma started thinking up a plan as he went

about dodging missile projectiles and deflecting energy blasts.

He scratched his head, "Man, I need some way of quickly killing sentinels. I

can only take on one or two opponent if I do this before I knocked off the

sentinel,"

Ranma was struck in the back again, sent flying through the air. He simply

twisted in the air and landed skillfully on his feet.

"Goddamn! These guys are so fucking annoy-" Ranma said before a gigantic

foot came crashing down on him, sending him into the ground along with the foot

as a crater was formed.

The sentinel that stomped on Ranma was destroyed from within, Ranma having

punched a hole through the bottom of the sentinel's foot and shooting a ki-blast

up through its leg and destroying its internal circuitry.

After the sentinel fell to the ground, Ranma climbed his way up out of the

giant footprint-like crater.

"Let's see you get up from that," Ranma smirked, quickly ripping out a few

adamantium pieces from its leg and throwing it toward a nearby sentinels,

downing two of them before the adamantium he was using as projectiles was

melted.

"Damn," Ranma sighed, "This is getting tedious,"

He stood for a moment, wondering what he should do to quickly kill sentinels.

After a moment, he snapped his fingers as he realized what he should do.

"I need Thor and his Hammer," Ranma said.

He remembered him and Thor being a good team together, Ranma throwing the

Hammer while Thor made the Hammer come back to his hands.

Ranma turned around and ran away from the battle.

Thor and Nightcrawler and Asuka stood halfway up the side of a mountain,

watching the epic battle taking place a few miles from their location. Thor

could be seen fidgeting around with his Hammer as he held it.

"I know you want to join the fray and fight alongside everyone," Nightcrawler

said, "You go on ahead. I can watch over her,"

Thor said, "I can not do that. It is a request from Ranma that I watch over

her and I don't care to disobey him,"

Asuka almost felt like crying, "I'm sorry I stowed away like that. I never

intended it to be like this. I-I'm nothing but a burden,"

Nightcrawler said, "Don't worry about it. You're not a burden. This is just

something that was unexpected. That's all,"

"I should've known that by being here, I would be more of a burden than

anything else," Asuka wiped at something in her eyes, perhaps a speck of dirt.

"Look, don't worry about it," Nightcrawler said, "We all make mistakes,"

Asuka said, "Yeah, but when have you ever made a mistake that could get you

killed, but also jeopardize an entire mission because it forced people to have

to watch out for your safety?"

Nightcrawler said, "Well, I tried fighting a modern day Jack the Ripper with a

leg in a cast. That sure wasn't all that smart on my behalf. Look, the thing you

need to understand is that we all make mistakes so you shouldn't dwell over it

that much,"

"Look, Ranma comes," Thor said, pointing.

Nightcrawler and Asuka looked toward the open land before them and caught

sight of a speck of dot growing larger and larger as it seemed to be headed

straight toward them.

"That is Ranma," Nightcrawler said.

"You can see that it's him?" Asuka asked, "But he's so far away,"

"Good vision," Nightcrawler smiled.

"Oh," Asuka said, once again feeling inadequate.

Nightcrawler could be seen crossing the open land and up the side of the

mountain, taking several leaps to reach their location. Everyone just watched in

amazement as Ranma didn't seem to use flight to reach their location.

When Ranma landed right by where they were, he smiled.

Asuka noticed Ranma was without a headset device.

"W-why are you here?" Asuka asked in Japanese, "Is something wrong?"

"I came to get Thor," Ranma replied to her, "Also, since you know English, can

I use your headset device? Wait, maybe that won't be all that useful since it'll

be destroyed by another EMP burst,"

Asuka pointed toward her ear, "I don't have one either. My own was destroyed

as well. I think mine was destroyed by the same EMP burst that destroyed yours,"

"Damn," he said, "Oh well, thank goodness you're here. You can help me

translate. Tell Thor I need his Hammer. Tell him he and I took out sentinels

back then at Montauk Point, where he electrified his Hammer and I threw it and

he had it come back to him. Tell him that strategy worked then really well so it

should work just as good now,"

"Okay," Asuka turned toward Thor and said something to him in English that

Ranma couldn't understand. After a second, Thor nodded and said something back.

"He's ready when you're ready," Asuka translated, "Lead the way,"

"Okay," Ranma said, "Tell Nightcrawler that I'm depending on him to guard

you,"

Ranma headed down the side of the mountain, heading toward the fray, Thor

flying closely behind.

Ranma and Thor made it into the middle of battle in no time, Ranma running the

distance from the mountain while Thor flew. As they crossed the battlefield,

they were both able to take in just how much devastation those sentinels had

caused.

Most of the Wakandan tanks had been destroyed. Some of them were squished flat

under the immense stomping power of a sentinel's foot. Others nothing but

smoldering wreckage, destroyed by one of the many weapon systems the sentinels

possessed.

Most of the Wakandan planes had been destroyed as well, most of them shot

down. The battlefield was littered with downed planes and destroyed tanks. Only

the few warships still remained of the Wakandan Army and they could be seen

desperately trying to fight off the sentinels that had landed on top of them and

continuously fired down into its hull.

The warships could be seen flying away from the battle field, a strategic

retreat. The captains of the ships knew it would be only a matter of time before

they would fall from the skies. At least this way, when the warship finally

succumbs to the immense firepower and sheer quantity of sentinels, they would

not take out many lives when it crashes, like what had happened with the first

downed warship.

"This is atrocious," Thor said to himself, appalled at the destruction he was

witnessing. He knew of the Wakandan Army and knew it to be a very powerful

force. How is it possible that such an immensely powerful be taken out so

quickly?

The battle had raged out for no longer than an a half an hour and most of the

forces there to stop the sentinels had perished. A good portion of the Heroes

and super villains remained but their combined efforts seemed to do little

effect.

Thor quickly banished his astonishment, continuing to follow closely behind

Ranma, very sure that Ranma felt just as disgusted at the results of the battle

as he is.

After a short while of running, Ranma decided he was in a good location to get

the most sentinels to notice them when they started attacking, he turned toward

Thor and extended his arm.

Thor said a couple of words Ranma didn't understand as he handed Ranma his

Hammer to Ranma, the Hammer glowing blue and crackling with electricity.

"Man, I saw it before, but it's still cool to see," Ranma said to himself.

He looked skyward and watched as a bunch of sentinels flew overhead, trying to

see some kind of flight pattern, waiting for the right moment to throw the

Hammer.

After a few moments, Ranma threw the Hammer skyward, sending it right through

the chest of a sentinel, rendering it destroy as the Hammer pierced its armor

and short-circuited all its electrical component upon contact, before shooting

out through its back and continuing to travel skyward, piercing through two more

other hapless sentinels.

Ranma smirked, "Three sentinels with one throw,"

He waited as Thor held his hand skyward and awaited the return of his Hammer.

The two of them had to pause for a moment as three gigantic sentinels fell from

the sky and crashed to the ground at three different locations, the damage from

their impact devastating.

As Thor awaited his Hammer to return, Ranma quickly ran forward toward the

sentinel that had crashed nearby. Thor, following his lead, quickly followed

behind him, arm toward the sky.

Ranma quickly ripped off a few chunks of adamantium from the downed sentinel

and threw them toward a few nearby sentinels, taking them out as well, before

the adamantium was assimilated by one of the countless remaining sentinels.

Just as the Hammer finally returned to Thor's hands, Ranma took a hold of it

and threw it toward the sky again, taking out two sentinels in the process. Once

again, the sentinels crashed to the ground.

However, as Ranma proceed to run toward one of the downed sentinels, a missile

blew up nearby, both Ranma and Thor caught in the blast. They were both sent

flying where they landed a bit ways off from one another.

Ranma simply flipped in the air and landed on his feet and began running back

toward Thor. Thor could be seen getting back up to his feet, unable to recover

in mid-air to land on his feet. However, he looked perfectly fine.

"I guess it takes more than a missile to knock Thor out," Ranma said to

himself, smirking.

Just as Thor got to his feet, his Hammer was returned to him to which he

quickly handed it back to Ranma.

Once again, Ranma threw it, taking out two more sentinels. This time, he threw

the hammer at an almost upward direction, making it so that the destroyed

sentinels landed nearby. This would allow them the most optimal amount of time

for Ranma to rip some adamantium chunks off of it and use them to take out even

more sentinels before the adamantium would be assimilated and he would have to

start all over again.

"Ranma," he heard Thor's voice, a hand tapping on one of his shoulders.

Ranma turned toward Thor.

"Nani?" was what Thor heard but unable to understand.

Thor gestured toward the edge of the battle field. Because he knew there was

no way he could verbally communicate with Ranma, all he figured he could do was

make some kind of gesture.

Ranma looked in the direction Thor was gesturing and noticed one of the

retreating warship heading in the direction of the mountain range. There were

over five sentinels standing on top of it firing all their weapon systems down

toward the warship's hull. Several sentinels could be seen following after it

and opening fire up it as well.

"Oh no!" the blood drained from Ranma's face. He knew the warship was heading

directly toward Nightcrawler's and Asuka's direction. If the warship crashing

down onto the side of the mountain, there was a good chance both Nightcrawler

and Asuka would be killed. Sure, Nightcrawler could teleport, but there was

still the element of danger.

"No!" Ranma gasped as he could see as the warship starting to fall from the

sky, unable to sustain anymore damage.

Thor was blown bodily backwards as a massive shockwave occurred as Ranma took

off in a full sprint straight toward the mountain range. The icy ground could be

seen folding upward from the force of Ranma digging his feet into the ground

before taking off in a full sprint.

When Thor got to his feet, he quickly took to the skies, flying as quickly

after Ranma as possible, knowing full well that if he or Ranma didn't make it in

time, Nightcrawler's and Asuka's could be forfeit.

Ranma made it halfway there before the warship crashed into the side of the

mountain, right where Asuka and Nightcrawler had been when he and Thor headed

for battle.

"No! No! No!" Ranma was repeating over and over again, his heart sinking, the

feeling of dread enveloping him as he feared the worse, "Please, Nightcrawler,

tell me you managed to use your powers in time,"

Ranma continued sprinting, watching as the sentinels on the top of the warship

took off to the skies. Since the sentinels had destroyed their, the warship,

they could now focus on different targets. They all began flying back in the

direction of the battlefield.

Ranma's eyes widened in relief as he caught sight of something suddenly

appearing out in the middle of the vast stretch of land before him. He realized

that it was Nightcrawler and Asuka, that he had used his powers to teleport them

out of danger.

Thor suddenly flew right by him, flying faster than Ranma could sprint. It was

obvious he saw Nightcrawler and Asuka as well, flying straight toward their

location.

The sentinels, acquiring new targets, began opening fire upon Nightcrawler's

and Asuka's location. However, much to Ranma's relief, he teleported himself and

Asuka away from danger.

Thor could be seen arcing up toward the sky as he flew straight toward the

attacking sentinels. He could be seen flying right up into the middle of the

group of sentinels. A second later, a brilliant light seemed to emanate from his

Hammer as he let loose a massive electrical storm in every direction, hitting

every sentinel in the group.

Ranma recognized the attack. That was the same attack Thor used to draw the

sentinels' attention back then at Montauk Point. It was obvious he was doing it

again to draw the sentinels' attention away from Nightcrawler and Asuka.

The group of sentinels all started chasing after Thor, Thor flying straight

toward Ranma.

To Ranma's surprise, the pursuing sentinel followed closely behind. They

followed in a way that they basically formed a single line, only the front

sentinel able to get a clear shot on Thor. However, Thor did evasive maneuvers

to avoid getting hit.

Ranma stopped his running and held his hand out straight toward Thor, making

eye contact with him as he flew toward him. Ranma hope the man would know what

he was trying to convey without him actually saying the words.

Thor flew straight toward Ranma. Just as he was about to fly right by him, he

let go of the Hammer, tumbling to the ground, tucking himself to lessen the

damage he would sustain from tumbling on the hard icy ground at well over

supersonic speeds.

The Hammer was glowing blue and crackling with electricity as Thor made its

momentum carry it forward even after he had let go, sailing it right into

Ranma's awaiting hands.

The moment Ranma caught the Hammer, he launched it straight toward the face of

the incoming sentinel, sending it right through the sentinel's body and out

through its pelvic area, to which it continued to travel onward and through the

sentinel right behind that sentinel, breaking through it as well. This continued

out piercing sentinel after sentinel, destroying all but one of the sentinels,

missing the last one narrowly.

However, Ranma reacted quickly enough, quickly jumping straight up and

punching the incoming sentinel in the chest as it flew overhead, piercing its

armor and letting loose a ki-blast, destroying the sentinel from within.

The sentinel crashed to the ground on top of Ranma, sliding to a halt after a

few hundred meters, Ranma trapped underneath. It took a moment for Ranma to

break himself through the sentinel and out from underneath it.

"Are you okay?" Thor asked, realizing that it was useless to talk with him

since he wouldn't understand.

Ranma wondered what Thor said. But assumed it was merely a curious question as

to how he was.

All Ranma did was nod and give a thumb's up sign.

Thor's face became serious as he looked past Ranma's shoulder.

Ranma turned around and looked toward what Thor was looking at.

"Oh my God!" Ranma said to himself at what he saw.

A short distance away was Nightcrawler, having teleported there from before,

however, what shocked Ranma was the sight of Nightcrawler on his knees, Asuka

cradled against, a puddle of blood forming around his feet.

Ranma quickly ran up to them.

Nightcrawler was rocking back and forth, his left arm hanging limply by his

side, blood spewing from an open wound around his left shoulder.

"W-what happened?" Ranma asked concern in his shoulder, concerned for

Nightcrawler.

He turned to ask Asuka to translate and was shocked at what he saw.

"Asuka's been hit!" Nightcrawler said, fighting the urge to fall into

unconsciousness from the pain, the utmost concern in his voice, "A bullet got me

and went right through my shoulder and into Asuka. I couldn't teleport in time,"

Unfortunately, Nightcrawler's words were lost to Ranma, him not able to hear

them nor able to understand them. The act of him passing out and falling

backward onto his back from the pain was unnoticed by him.

Ranma was transfixed at Asuka, his eyes wide as he gazed at her and saw her

weakly clutching at her chest, her winterwear almost completely red with her

life's blood.

"No!" Ranma's eyes widened in complete shock, "No! No! No!"

"I-I'm sorry," Asuka said weakly, "I-I didn't mean to be a such a burden..."

Ranma looked down toward he chest and knew where she had been struck. A bullet

had pierced right through her chest and through her heart. Only a wound like

that could cause so much bleeding.

"Shh, calm down," Ranma said, tears starting to form around his eyes, "Y-

you're going to be all right,"

He looked around for something to use to stop the bleeding, a look of absolute

desperation in his eyes. He looked to be completely lost, unable to think

straight in what to do.

"I've been in love with you..." she said weakly, wanting to tell him her dying

words.

Tears started to flow freely, "I-I know that, Asuka. I've always known that,"

"I-I'm s-sorry-" Asuka closed her eyes one last time.

"No...no...no..." Ranma started pleading, grabbing Asuka and bringing

her into his chest, cradling her tightly against him, rocking back and forth,

"No, don't go. Don't leave me,"

He continued to rock back and forth, holding her tightly.

"W-what have I done?" Ranma sobbed, "This was never supposed to happen,"

After a few minutes, Ranma gently placed Asuka down on the ground, brushing

away some of her bangs that were matted against her face.

"Those fucking sentinels! Those fucking sentinels!" Ranma cried, "It's all

their fault!"

Ranma turned his attention toward the battle as it rage on not too far away

and began to walk toward it.

Thor looked up toward the artificially lit sky and caught sight of the clouds

parting. Emerging from the parting clouds were billions of Angels, all of them

descending upon the world, summoned by none other than Ranma.

"By Odin's beard!" Thor gasped.

new stuff 9/16

Human emotions.

Ranma still possessed that. Despite having become what he had become, there

were still human aspects to him, some of them faults some of them not. One of

his faults was his connections to the human aspect of himself. Even though he

had known what 'true suffering' was, he could not shake off the aspect of his

humanity that would tear away at him. A loss of someone he cared for struck a

nerve on the human-most aspect of him.

Much like the way Ranma would instinctively flinch at something about to hit

him, a completely human aspect of him that will most likely never disappear, he

also felt pain upon the loss of someone he cared for.

It was similar to finding out one of your loved ones died saving the lives of

many, a heroic sacrifice. Even though you knew that it was for the better, that

the lives of many helped justified the life of one, it still hurt deep on the

inside.

That was the aspect of humanity Ranma still had. Having seen and known more

than anyone could possibly comprehend, there were other parts of him that he

clung to with all his might, to never want to lose. His sense of humanity was

one of them. Having been human for so long, that was the only way he knew how to

live. Unfortunately, being only familiar with a certain way of seeing life

around him, he was open to feel what humans considered pain and suffering.

Ranma never threw away his humanity. Heck, Ranma was nothing more than a human

that acquired infinite power and infinite wisdom. But nonetheless, he had been a

human that had achieved that. While possessing no physical traits that would

deem him an actual human, he was still considered human in nature.

Ranma was in no way perfect nor would he ever become so. He had made many

mistakes in his life, even mistakes that had eventually led to his own death

like giving into Asuka and letting her go back to her own world's past.

This was why Ranma felt such sorrow upon the death of Asuka. He was a man the

understood 'true suffering' and should not be dwelling over the trivial death of

feelings he should be feeling in the overall scheme of existence, but still felt

suffering from the death of Asuka nonetheless. The human aspect of him made him

forget that the pain he felt was nothing in comparison to 'true suffering' which

was why he cried with all his heart, feeling that he himself had been wronged.

Sure, in actuality, it was Asuka's fault for being there and getting killed in

the first place, but Ranma never saw beyond his sadness to realize that.

He never saw beyond the fact that Asuka had been killed, never saw beyond the

fact that he actually possessed the powers to bring her back, never saw beyond

the fact a snap of the fingers could fix everything up. All he saw was that

Asuka had been killed by sentinels and the sentinels were at fault.

Oddly enough, although the sentinels were just programmed that way and Asuka

was nothing more than a casualty, in the wrong place at the wrong time, the

human aspect of Ranma made him blame the sentinels with all the hatred one could

ever possess.

Walking slowly toward the battlefield, Ranma was ready to unleash his fury in

the forms of billions of Angels as well as himself.

Cyclops looked skyward and noticed something odd about the sky. The sky looked

black with clouds except he knew those weren't clouds. It looked as if there

were numerous specks of dots slowly descending on the world, all so close to

each other that it seemed to form a wave of black.

"Looks like things're gonna get int'resting," came Logan's voice from nearby.

"What the hell are those?" Cyclops continued to look up.

"Dunno, but I've gotta funny feelin' we don't wanna find out," Logan smirked.

Cyclops looked toward the outer edge of the battlefield where he saw this

blazing aura coming from something but didn't realize that it was Ranma

approaching the battle.

"What the hell's going on here?" Cyclops said, feeling like an out-of-control

situation had just gone further out-of-control. The situation seemed to have

suddenly gone from hopeless to absolutely doomed.

Logan looked up, "Those look like some kinda winged-being,"

A rocket blew up nearby, sending both of them flying. Cyclops tumbled on the

ground while Logan rolled right back to his feet. He glanced over toward Cyclops

and noticed the man looked a bit dazed but otherwise okay.

Logan continued to look up, really wanting to know what was going on. It

looked like some kind of winged-being freefalling toward the world and was

descending right toward the battlefield and would be there in a minute or so.

Realizing that he was a sitting target standing there like that, Logan looked

around for the nearest Sentinel to try and attack, knowing full well that it was

useless trying to lure them away from the battle field one at a time since there

were just too many of them too close to each other that if he tried to lure one

away from the battlefield, at least a dozen would follow.

Since he was pretty sure he was going down fighting, he didn't want to go down

fighting with some useless piece of junk Savage Land vibranium weapon and would

go down slashing and clawing at his enemy.

Sure, it would have no effect, but he didn't care. It was what he was more

familiar with.

The entire battle field seemed to freeze as everyone stopped what they were

doing to look up at the sky toward whatever seemed to be descending down upon

them. Some people made assumptions as to what it could possibly be. Could it be

another massive wave of sentinels? Could it be the arrival of some kind of

cosmic beginning? Whatever it was, everyone seemed to feel that it was now the

beginning of an end.

The battle raged on as the sentinels seemed continue on fighting, forcing

everyone curious as to what was going to happen next to resume fighting for

their lives. At this point in time, all the Wakandan Tanks had been destroyed

and only a few Wakandan planes remained. A third warship could be seen crashing

down on the vast open grounds a few miles away from the battle.

"A-are those clones of Ranma?" Cyclops wondered aloud, starting to distinguish

the descending Angels, "What the heck's going on here?"

The descending beings looked like Ranma with wings.

The Angels descended upon the sentinels with thunderous force, like a wave of

death from above. They crashed into the sentinels, each and everyone, swarming

them like millions bees around a human.

The sentinels could be seen firing all their weapon systems toward their new

targets.

Everyone seemed to stop and look up, transfixed on what was transpiring. The

sky glowed a brilliant shade of crimson as AT Fields could be seen forming all

over the place.

They all watched as the Sentinels seemed to disappear among the Angels, the

Angels grabbing onto them. When this happened, the sky flickered between red and

blue as the sentinels used their electrical charges to incapacitate all the

Angels clinging on to them, AT Field kicking in to prevent its electrical

discharge from being effective.

They all watched in astonishment as every sentinel, all thousand plus of them,

seemed to be instantly overwhelmed, disappearing among the see of humanoid forms

that happened to look like Ranma with wings. No one seemed to do anything, not

knowing what to do or where all the beings came from. But judging from what they

were all witnessing, it seemed like the winged-beings were going after the

sentinels.

"My God!" Cyclops gasped, "Did Ranma summon these...things?"

He glanced around and noticed everyone just standing right where their were,

wherever they were on the battlefield, their shadows flickering from all the

explosions and AT Fields coming to life throughout the sky. Everyone seemed awed

as they stared transfixed toward the sky, most of them probably thinking the

same thing.

Was this the beginning of the end?

Cyclops caught sight of some odd looking form of curved energy projection in

his peripheral view, traveling skyward from the location where he had seen that

odd looking aura. The curved blade was massive, its arc probably stretching more

than a miles from tip to tip.

He followed the path of the blade as it traveled skyward and struck a

sentinel, cutting it in half, continuing to travel forward where it struck the

sea of Angels, cutting through them as well.

The AT Fields that seemed to magically form in front of them did nothing to

protect them as the projection just cut through everything in its path,

continuing to travel skyward, disappearing beyond the heavens, view of it

disappearing as Angels seemed to gather around and fill in the 'wound' that had

occurred, Angels flying forward to replace its fallen brethren.

Thousands upon thousands of Angels could be seen falling from the skies,

killed by the blade-like projection. They could be seen evaporating into mist as

they fell, disappearing before they touched the ground.

The sentinel, sliced in half, fell toward the ground below. But before it fell

down from the sky completely, it was shredded to nothing as thousands of blade-

like projections sliced through it, all coming from the same location where the

first projection had come from.

Hundreds of thousands of hapless Angels hovering behind the sentinel and in

the path of the projection fell to those projections, them making no efforts to

dodge. Once again, then seemed to fall from the sky, disappearing into nothing.

Cyclops glanced over toward the debris that used to be a sentinel that fell to

the ground. Over a thousand tons of scrap metal landed on the ground, not a

single piece any larger than around one square foot in size.

The pile of debris that landed onto the ground formed a small hill, like kind

formed from the sand falling to the bottom of an hourglass. The adamantium could

be seen remained right where it was, not being assimilated like expected. This

was because all one thousand plus sentinels seemed to be temporarily

incapacitated, unable to move as all the Angels seemed to hold them from moving.

Heck, sentinels couldn't even be seen, all of them covered by Angels. All that

could be seen were gigantic humanoid figures high in the sky, seemingly covered

by the wings of the Angels as they clutched toward each and every one of them

wherever they were.

Cyclops saw another insane quantity of projections coming from the direction

of the aura, striking yet another sentinel in the same fashion as the first,

utterly destroying it, the projections also killing several hapless Angels in

the process as well.

From his point of view, it seemed like the Angels were nothing but cannon

fodder, there to pin the sentinels where they were and be sacrificed by those

blade-like projections.

Glancing over toward the aura approaching the battle field, Cyclops watched

carefully. All he could see was a figure seemingly walking, arms moving around

as each motion or gesture seemed to send out those immensely powerful blade-like

projection.

After a few minutes, more than a few dozen sentinels destroyed in the exact

same fashion as the first and second, Cyclops finally distinguished who that

individual within the blazing aura was.

"Ranma?" he asked himself.

He watched as Ranma seemed to have grown bored with walking as he suddenly

took to the skies. No wings could be seen sprouting from his back, him never

really needing wings to fly in the first place anyway.

Down below, everyone just watch as Ranma seemed to hover high above them,

coming to a halt around a mile above the ground. Everyone that could fly were

standing on the ground now, hovering down and landing just as Ranma seemed to

take flight, as if they somehow knew that they should not be sharing the skies

with Ranma.

Ranma made a gesture that seemed to say 'Come Here'.

The Angels all seemed to understand the gesture as they all seemed to bring

themselves around the remaining sentinels, enveloping each an every one of them

so much that their forms could no longer be seen, hidden beneath a massive

sphere of Angels bodies.

All the spheres of Angels could be seen slowly migrating toward where Ranma

hovered. Since they were all located at various distances from Ranma, some

arrived in front of Ranma before the others.

Ranma seemed to just hover in place as these spheres of Angels combined with

one another, merged together to form a larger sphere, the sentinels inside

slowly being grouped together, prevented from moving by all those Angels.

Everyone watched as all those spheres of Angels came together, eventually

coming together to form a sphere approximately a half-mile in radius, possessing

within it all the captured sentinels.

Everyone watched as Ranma extended a hand forward and let loose an absolutely

massive energy blast straight toward the sphere, expanding outward in diameter

rapidly.

It expanded so much that people on the ground a mile below had to take cover

as it seemed to continue expanding until it large enough in diameter that it

even touched the ground far below. They were forced to take cover on the ground

behind Ranma, the energy blast shooting in a forward direction.

Unfortunately, perhaps because Ranma didn't care or was unaware of it, the

energy blast was angled in a slightly downward direction, the blast continuing

to travel forward where it disappeared into the ground, piercing right through a

portion of the Earth and coming out the other side. Unbeknownst to everyone

there, the blast exited somewhere near the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a

massive whirlpool forming as the ocean waters rushed in to fill the newly made

hole.

When the energy blast subsided, nothing remained. The sphere of Angels and all

the captured sentinels incinerated to nothing more than that of a subatomic

particles.

Despite having just killed several million Angels from his blade-like

projections and that final blast of his, billions of Angels remained and

continued to darken the sky simply because of their sheer number. They all

seemed to just hover around, as if awaiting their next command.

Ranma made a gesture motion.

The Angels took to the skies, disappearing into the darkness that was the

skies, returning to the divine place from whence they came. When all the Angels

disappeared, everything seemed to have become quiet. There were no more sounds

of weapons being fired, no more sounds of people screaming and yelling above the

roar of battle about the futility and hopelessness of the situation, nothing.

The only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of the cold arctic winds

blowing over the battlefield, a battlefield littered with the aftermath of such

a battle. There were dead bodies all over the place, some of Heroes, some of

super villains. There were many unconscious bodies as well, many of the tougher

Heroes and super villains falling knocked out shortly after the battle had

begun. And last but not least, the scrap metal from all the destroyed tanks,

planes, and warships. The color of the ground could not be seen, littered with

so much debris from battle, most of it belonging to the Wakandan Army.

It took several long moments for everyone still alive and standing to take in

their surroundings.

"Such destruction," Cyclops gasped, looking around.

He felt surreal, like everything was a dream. He found it hard to comprehend

what had happened. One minutes they were fighting a losing battle, and then the

next minute, all the sentinels seemed to have been destroyed.

After a few minutes, it started to dawn on him that it seemed like the battle

had ended and he could now start thinking about the consequences of such a

battle.

"Jean," he said, worry in his voice. He had lost sight of her long ago during

the battle and prayed that she was alive and well.

He quickly looked about, hoping he could find his wife among the dozen or so

people that were still standing after such a fight. He ran in a random

direction, looking for anything that might give him an indication of Jean's

whereabouts.

Cyclops caught the flutter of red hair coming from among the wreckage of a

downed Wakandan plane. He quickly rushed up to that location and was horrified

with what he saw. Jean was laying on the ground, unmoving, a puddle of blood

surrounding her. Her body was riddled with bullet holes, she having been one of

the very first to fall in battle. Her lifeless eyes were staring up toward the

sky.

He grabbed a hold of her, bringing her up to his chest, tears falling down his

cheeks from below his visor, "No. No. Please no. Why did it have to be her?"

Logan could be heard coming to a stop right by him. He had caught sight of red

hair fluttering in the wind just like Cyclops. Aside from a few bullet holes and

some ripped up winterwear, he looked perfectly fine.

However, deep down on the inside, he was anything but fine.

Logan just stood there, gazing down at Cyclops as he held Jean, rocking back

and forth. He held his emotions really well but still looked like he was nearing

the verge of tears.

He turned away and walked away, wanting to deal with Jean's death in his own

way, by himself. Blood could be seen dripping from his hands, his hands clenched

so hard that his fingernails bit through the skin of his palms.

There were fallen Heroes and super villains that littered the battlefield, all

of them having made the ultimate sacrifice. To Cyclops' disbelief, he caught

sight of another familiar body lying lifelessly among the dead, his son, Cable.

"No, no, no," he pleaded, carrying Jean with him as he crossed the distance

between where he was and to where Cable lay.

He gently lay Jean down next to Cable. He reached out and touched Cable's

chest, a large gaping hole where his stomach used to be. There was no blood

around him, the wound having been cauterized by the massive laser bean that had

struck him from behind.

Everything seemed surreal to Cyclops as he peered down at his dead son. His

son was a survivor, had survived one-on-one fights with Hulk, had fought in

countless battle, had grown up in a timeline where Apocalypse ruled the world,

had survived so many encounters that would had killed him. To see him dead was

something that seemed impossible.

Unfortunately, Cable had been killed much like all the others, by being

overwhelmed by the massive numbers. As powerful and tough as Cable was, even he

would succumb to such overwhelming numbers. Afterall, even the contingent of the

Wakandan Army had fallen to such vast numbers.

Cyclops cried out in pain, sobbing over the dead bodies of his son and his

wife.

Logan was in deep pain. He didn't care if Ranma said that the pain he felt

would be nothing compared to 'true suffering'. This form of suffering he was

feeling tore away at him, eating him from the inside.

He caught sight of Ranma as he seemed to hover down from the sky, landing not

to far from him. Seeing Ranma made Logan come up with and idea. He remembered

the mission him and Ranma had been on where he saw Ranma resurrect all those

children that had died in the school collapse.

Logan approached Ranma.

"Hey!" Logan called out to him.

Ranma turned to face Logan.

"I don't care what you think about people dying and bringing 'em back," Logan

said coldly, "You're going to bring back Jean. What the heck happened to one of

your eyes?"

Logan noticed that one of Ranma's eyes was red.

Ranma sneered as he reached a hand out and grabbed Logan by the throat,

lifting him off the ground.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Ranma said coldly.

Logan was caught off-guard at the actions that he did nothing but stare in

shock at Ranma. However, it didn't last long before Logan composed himself and

brought a claw out and up toward Ranma's throat.

"Y'better leggo of me, Ranma," Logan sneered.

Ranma showed no signs of worry.

The sky started to turn red all of a sudden. Because it was not Ranma's doing

that had caused it, it seemed to have pique his curiosity as he threw Logan away

from him before the man could do anything, looking up toward the sky to await

whatever was at hand.

Logan tumbled a good hundred yards to a halt. He could be seen sneering as he

got to his feet, claws shooting out from both fists, feeling the urge to murder

Ranma.

However, something stopped him.

A portal had opened a short distance in front of where Ranma stood. It glowed

a brilliant shade of blue, to brilliant that everyone seeing it had to shield

their eyes.

When the portal disappeared, it revealed three individuals. No one but Ranma

seemed to recognized those individuals. The first individual was a beautiful

woman with a long mane of white hair that fluttered in the wind. The second

individual was a young looking man that seemed to be in his early twenties with

short brown hair and a large spear in his hands, the same spear Ranma had made a

while ago that Rei had used to kill him. The last individual was a man

with short black hair that wore a yellow and black bandanna.

Those three individuals were none other than Urd, Shinji, and Ryoga.

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Ryoga approached Ranma as Ranma looked at him curiously.

"We meet again," Ryoga grinned, "This is gonna be fun,"

Without warning, Ryoga struck Ranma right in the stomach, catching him

completely off-guard, striking him with so much force that Ranma he

instinctively leaned forward, as if in pain. His face showed no signs of pain,

as if it was simply a reflexive reaction on his part.

The sounds of bones breaking came from Ryoga's fist, Ryoga knowing full well

that he needed to punch Ranma with all his might to have some kind of effect on

him, even if it meant that his own fist would be broken.

Several Heroes winced in pain as their eardrums started ringing from the

devastating shockwave that came from the impact. They had no idea what was going

on but knew that something was happening, that Ranma was being attacked.

Ryoga rained a devastating elbow right on the back of Ranma's neck, sending

him crashing down into the icy ground. Unfortunately, so much force had been

implemented that a massive crater formed below him, Ryoga yelling in surprise as

he ended up falling down into the crater with him, landing on top of him.

As Ranma got up to his feet, he found himself looking eye-to-eye with Ryoga.

Ryoga quickly recovered himself and headbutted Ranma right in the nose,

sending him flying backwards where he slammed against the side of the crater and

bounced out of it, landed around thirty feet from the crater's edge.

"Ow!" Ryoga winced in pain as he quickly run up and out of the crater,

clutching at his head, blood dripping down his face. Headbutting adamantium and

denting it with his head would probably hurt his head less than headbutting

Ranma. But still, he had to do something and that was what needed to be done.

He ran forward, fighting back the white spots he was seeing in his vision and

punched Ranma again in the stomach with his other fist, hitting with all his

might, shattering his fist in the process.

"Now, Shinji!" Ryoga shouted, falling down to his kneels, feeling woozy. All

the adrenaline he was feeling wasn't enough to fight back, the intense pain he

was feeling from having his fists were shattered as well as the bones of his

elbow shattered and a part of his skull fractured over the span of no more than

ten seconds.

"Right!" Shinji nodded. He brought his Lance up and charged toward Ranma as

Ranma continued to reel instinctively from the blows he had just received.

Although he felt no pain, that didn't mean he could just stand still and absorb

blows like an immoveable object if he wasn't prepared for it.

Just as Shinji leapt over the crater and landed on the other side and was

about to plunge the Lance right into Ranma's chest, an energy blast shot right

between him and Ranma, startling Shinji to the point that he slipped and fell to

the ground, dropping his Lance right by Ranma's feet.

"What the?" Shinji quickly looked around, wondering where the blast had come

from.

His gaze rested on Cyclops. He was a good distance away and could be seen

holding Jean in his arms while looking directly toward him.

Cyclops, a born leader, was the kind of person that could push aside his grief

at a moment's notice to help someone out that he thought was in trouble.

Unfortunately, Cyclops was completely unaware that he had just made a big

mistake in firing that warning shot.

"I don't know who you are, but it's obvious you're trying to hurt our friend!"

Cyclops shouted toward Shinji's direction, on hand on his visor, "One more move

and I won't firing a second warning shot,"

Shinji cast Urd a worried glance.

Urd sneered in the direction of Cyclops and made a gesture toward him. All of

a sudden, Cyclops found himself unable to move, as if completely paralyzed, his

body nothing more than a statue, only his eyes able to move.

What the, Cyclops thought, wondering what was wrong with him.

Shinji quickly go to his feet, looking around for his weapon. When he saw

Ranma, having recovered from Ryoga's attacked, slowly picking the Lance up in

his hands, all the blood drained from his face.

"Oh no!" Shinji gasped, scooting backwards on the icy.

"Get it back from him!" he heard Urd shout toward him, taking several worried

steps backwards.

Shinji quickly got to his feet as he saw Ryoga run up behind Ranma and grabbed

him around his arm in a full nelson, snaking his arms below Ranma's armpits and

up and around the back of his head, cranking his head downward with extreme

force, his fingers entwined. Even though the bones in his hands were shattered,

he seemed to ignore the fact.

"Snap already, you goddamn neck!" Ryoga sneered, cranking Ranma's neck

downward as hard as he possibly could. Ranma just remained in that position,

currently trying to figuring out what was going on, his arms high in the air,

one hand firmly on the Land.

While Ryoga held onto Ranma tightly, Shinji made a grab at the Lance and tried

to pull it from Ranma's grip, much to no avail, Ranma's grip to tight over the

weapon.

After a few seconds of trying to pull the Lance away, Shinji gave up and let

go of his hold on the Lance, knowing he was not going to get it away from Ranma.

His eyes widened as he realized something, that Ranma was currently being held

down by Ryoga or at least not doing anything, his mind still slow to comprehend

the hold he was in and what he should do to break out of it. Because of this,

Shinji had a few free shots at him.

Shinji spread his legs wide to establish a very firm stance and twisted his

upper body backwards so that his torso was facing away from Ranma while his

lower body faced him, cocking left arm backwards as far as he could.

"Errrrrr!" Shinji let out a loud grunt as he swung his left arm around

punched toward Ranma's ribs with as much power as he could possibly muster,

punching him right in the liver area, executing a perfect blow that his boxing

coach, Ippo, had taught him, The Liver Blow.

Ranma's eyes widened as three of his ribs were broken under the intense

impact, pain shooting through his entire body. The force of the impact seemed to

travel right through the side of his body as the ice and the snow on the ground

seemed to be sent up into the air like massive column of air passed right over

them.

Ranma seemed to become momentarily stunned from the pain he was feeling as he

leaned forward instinctively, Ryoga's feet leaving the ground as he continued to

hold onto Ranma as he did so.

Remembering what he had been taught when he used to do boxing, Shinji took a

quick step inward, ducking low. The impact of Shinji's forward foot as he

stepped in disturbed the air around him, his foot becoming slightly imbedded in

the rock hard icy ground.

"Errrrrrr!" Shinji let out another grunt as he tightening his legs and stood

upward, hooking his left arm from down low, bringing it up viciously and

striking Ranma right in the face as he was leaning forward, executing yet

another punch his boxing coach had taught him, The Gazelle Punch.

Ranma's face was struck with such face that it was sent violently backwards,

breaking through Ryoga's hold over the back of his head as he was trying to

crank it downward, the back of Ranma's head hitting into Ryoga's face, causing

him to lose his hold over Ranma, as he staggered backwards several step in pain

and fell down onto his backside, clutching at the pain he was feeling coming

from his forehead.

Ryoga peered through the opening of his fingers as he held his face and caught

sight of Ranma, standing very still and looking upward, still reeling from the

effects of being struck like that, completely stunned from the devastating punch

Shinji had inflicted upon him. Unfortunately, he still held onto the Lance.

Shinji stood right in front of Ranma, ducking and weaving his body from side

to side like that of an infinity symbol, his hands clenched closely by his

chest. The ducking and weaving could be seen getting faster and faster as Shinji

started to build up momentum for his final attack, the finishing technique that

he was taught, The Dempsey Roll.

After what seemed like in eternity of building up, Shinji started punching

Ranma's face from side to side, punching him as he ducked and weaved, using his

body to add further momentum behind his punches.

Ranma's head was hit from side to side. He was struck in a manner that

prevented him from falling to the ground. Sounds of bones could be heard

shattering as the bones in Shinji's fists shattered from the impact as well as

Ranma's jaw becoming dislocated toward one side and then popped back in and re-

dislocated toward the other side.

Blood splattered everywhere as blood shoot from Ranma's mouth and nose and

Shinji's fists. This continued on for a good twenty seconds, Shinji landing

close to eighty devastating punches toward each side of Ranma's face, Ranma

unable to fall to the ground.

"Go down already!" Shinji seemed to be pleading, fighting the pains that

were shooting through his arms from his shattered fists as he continued on

punching, knowing that he had to keep on going or Urd was doomed.

He was Urd's only chance for survival. Only he stood between Ranma and Urd.

As Ranma was being punched viciously, Ryoga caught sight of Ranma's hand

tightening around the Lance he held, his knuckles becoming white.

"Lookout!" Ryoga shouted loudly, lunging forward and crashing into Shinji

from the side.

"Enough!" Ranma shouted, slashing toward Shinji, no longer wanting to be

punched anymore.

Shinji was narrowly missed as Ranma tried to slice him in half with the Lance.

Sure, the Lance was designed to stab through someone but Ranma didn't seem to

care. Besides, he could swing it with such force that it would slice just as

well as it could pierce.

Ryoga and Shinji ended up tumbling on the ground as a badly beaten Ranma

sliced at a downward angle at Shinji, intent on slicing him from his left

shoulder down to his left hip.

A blade-like projection shot forward from the arc of the blade on the Lance,

traveling right into the ground, cutting right through the entire Earth,

shooting out its North Pole where it continued to travel onwards for all of

eternity, slicing everything in its path.

Because of the way Ranma had swung the Lance, the blade-like projection ended

up slicing an entire quarter of the world right off, much like the way a knife

would slice off a portion of an apple.

The ground opened up below Ranma's feet as the severed portion of the Earth

seemed to start drifting off into space. This seemed to defy physics as the

gravitational pull of the larger portion of the Earth would prevent something

like that happened. That was because it was. Urd, realizing what had happened,

had used her powers to change the polarity of the smaller portion to that of

South Pole, creating a repelling effect.

The effects that had occurred was what she wanted as, a massive vacuum was

created as air rushed in to fill the gap forming between the larger and smaller

portion of the Earth as they parted, sucking in Ranma along with the Lance.

Shinji was about to get sucked in as well but was stopped as Ryoga grabbed

onto him. This surprised Shinji because Ryoga just stood right where he was as

the winds blew by him, his clothes rippling violently. It took a moment before

Shinji realized that Ryoga had simply used his ki to basically stick him to the

ground. It was much like the way how Ryoga could be sometimes seen running

upside down and up walls like Ranma, defying gravity, because ki helped him in

so many ways.

"Thanks," Shinji said, his words unheard over the roaring winds still rushing

by them and into the massive opening that stretched for as far as the eyes could

see.

Urd made a gesture which seemed to instantly reverse the smaller Earth's

polarity, causing it to turn into that of a magnet since it was suddenly

attracted toward the larger Earth's South Pole polarity.

The opening suddenly closed shut, crashing together with such force that all

the air that had rushed out of it was blown skyward. Shinji was almost blown

skyward by the upward rising winds had Ryoga not been there to keep him firmly

anchored.

When the air stopped rushing out, the opening that separated the portions of

the Earth could barely be seen. All that could be seen was an rise in the ground

that stretched outward along the line where the crack used to be, much like the

way tectonic plates slammed against each other to form mountains.

When all that was done, everything was quiet.

"That should slow him down," Urd sighed in relief.

Shinji quickly hopped over what used to be the crack. He was worried that the

smaller portion of the Earth might suddenly be rocketed out into space and he

would be stuck on there along with it.

"You don't think we killed him?" Shinji asked nervously.

Urd reluctantly shook his head, "No. We just slowed him down for a bit. At

least now we have a little bit of breathing room,"

"How long've we got?" Ryoga asked.

Urd walked over to where Ryoga and Shinji were and looked down at them.

"Jeez," she said, "I can't believe you can push yourself so hard to do what

you've done. Both your hands are shattered," She was very impressed at the

abilities that humans could achieve to be able to do something like that, to

simply disregard their personal well-fare and fight away the pain to fight so

hard.

The pain of such injuries started to come to Shinji and Ryoga as the

adrenaline started to wear off. They started feeling an intense burning

sensation around their hands, so intense that the ended up kneeling to the

ground out of fear they would faint from it. At least that way, they didn't have

far to fall.

Urd noticed the pained expressions on their face.

She quickly made a gesture over their hands, healing them instantly, Ryoga's

elbow and skull healing as well. Within seconds, the pain they were experience

was gone.

Shinji looked at his hands and cautiously moved his fingers, Ryoga doing the

same. When they realized their hands were perfectly fine, they stood back up and

faced Urd, grateful for what they had done.

"I should be grateful," Urd said, "You two did a terrific job,"

Shinji looked sad, "I'm sorry I didn't finish him off. I got startled and

dropped the Lance...and now the Lance is gone,"

Ryoga said, "Yeah, I saw it get sucked into the crack with Ranma,"

"It's not gone," Urd said, "It's just in a very inconvenient location. I can

retrieve it once I'm sure Ranma doesn't still have his hands on it or if he's no

where nearby it,"

Shinji started looking around, noticing all the carnage, "Um, where are we?"

"Antarctica," she answered, knowing the answers. She seemed to know the

answers when answers were needed, her powers in use as she used her Will to make

her know what had happened.

Ryoga turned around and glanced toward something a short distance away. Logan

seemed to be cautiously regarding the group of three. The encounter with Ranma

had lasted no longer than one minute and it took more than a minute for Logan to

try and decide a course of action. When he had decided to help out Ranma,

despite Ranma having tossed him like some rag doll, Ranma had been sucked into

the ground that opened up, Logan forced to stick his claws into the ground to

keep from getting sucked in by the vacuum created by the air rushing into the

opening.

Urd motioned toward Logan, "You, come here,"

Logan said noting, wondering who the woman was.

Urd seemed to grow impatient, "I have no time for this,"

She snapped her fingers as Logan was suddenly teleported right to where she

was, magically given the knowledge that the woman before him was Urd. He just

stared at her in awe. There was this presence to Urd that Logan had never felt

before, like the feeling of need to obey her now that he knew who she was. The

feeling made Logan wonder if that was why Thor seemed to obey Ranma, because

Thor knew Ranma much like the way Logan now knew Urd.

"Go get Thor, he is with Nightcrawler and...no..." Urd said as the

information started coming into his mind. Her powers worked in a way that she

got the information she needed when she needed it.

"What?" Shinji asked.

"Asuka's dead," Urd said, "Follow me,"

A portal opened up in front of her as she quickly entered it.

Shinji and Ryoga looked at one another and shrugged before quickly following

behind her, disappearing into the portal as well.

When the portal disappeared, Logan was left behind, a confused look on his

face as the temporary effects of Urd's enchantment on him seemed to be wearing

off. Not too far away, the temporary effects that she had cast over Cyclops

disappeared as he found himself able to move again.

Logan and Cyclops seemed to say the same thing in unison from where they

currently were.

"What the heck just happened?"

Thor applied bandages over Nightcrawler's shoulder.

Ever since Nightcrawler had fallen unconscious, he had quickly flown over to

one of the Quinjets and retrieved a first aid kit. Because the Quinjets were

never manned, two of the four remained intact, one destroyed simply by a stray

missile and the other a Sentinel falling from the sky.

He was crouched over Nightcrawler as the mutant continued to lay unconscious.

The bleeding had been stopped, thanks to Thor's medical knowledge. Laying right

next to Nightcrawler was Asuka, dead to the world. She was covered by his cape,

tucked in a way that it looked like she was sleeping soundly.

Thor had ignored everything to tend to Nightcrawler, ignored the sight of all

those Angels descending on the world, ignored the absolute destruction of all

those sentinels, ignored sight of what looked like the world opening up and

suddenly closing back up. He ignored all of that to tend to Nightcrawler, hoping

that he would not become one of the Fallen Heroes than saturated the

battlefield.

Although he ignored everything, he could not ignore the portal that suddenly

opened up right nearby. He gazed toward the portal, his hand tightening over the

handle of his Hammer, expecting whatever to emerge from the portal.

Urd emerged from the portal, followed closely behind by Shinji. Thor had never

even noticed Shinji or Ryoga, his eyes transfixed on the woman. When he caught

sight of Urd, he realized he had never in his life expected to see her.

His eyes widened in shock as he gasped in disbelief, "By the Heavens and

Odin's Beard!"

Urd stared down at Asuka in disbelief. She knew Asuka was dead without needing

to check. The information of what had happened was coming to her as she gazed

down at her.

"My God! What happened?" Shinji gasped, rushing over to kneel down by Asuka.

He gently peeled the cape off of her and winced at the sight of how much blood

there was covering her body.

"Asuka was shot through the chest," Urd said, the information coming to her as

she went, she in need of knowing, "Nightcrawler was trying to run away from

pursuing sentinels. He was shot through the shoulder and Asuka struck as well,"

"Well, bring her back," Shinji said, gesturing down toward Asuka's still form.

"Yes sir," Urd smirked. She found it rather amusing how Shinji was telling

her, God, what to do. But then again, considering he had actually come to her

aide twice when she had no one to turn to, she owed him big.

As she was about to use her powers to bring back the Asuka, a hand shot out

from the icy ground and grabbed onto Urd's ankle, causing the female God to yelp

in surprise.

She fell backwards to the ground, landing on her backside. She was then

brought upward upside down as Ranma seemed to just emerge from the icy ground, a

menacing sneer on his face.

His arm was extended outward as he held Urd upside down by one leg. His other

hand held the Lance tightly.

"Shit!" Ryoga was the first to react, realizing it was Ranma and that he was

now perfectly fine.

All the damage Ranma took from Shinji's attacks seemed to have been healed,

the only remaining indication that he had been hurt in the first place the blood

that was on his clothes. However, although he seemed perfectly fine, he seemed

to be furious.

Urd, when she realized what kind of predicament she was in, seemed to scream

in fright as she went about kicking Ranma's forearm with all her might. Oddly

enough, despite the fact that she had infinite strength, an innate quality about

her since she was God, Ranma's arm didn't budge from the impact. Afterall, he

had equal strength as herself.

"Your life ends here!" Ranma shouted toward Urd, bringing the Lance down and

back, expecting spear her right through her chest as he held her tautly in one

hand.

He was ready to end her life, to cease all of existence that comes with her

death, as well as his own existence. Suicidal to the end, Ranma was ready for

his release from life, the only way being Urd's own death. It was the only way

of truly achieving his goal, so that he would never live again. Heck, had he

succeeded before, he would not be here now. Now was that time to succeed.

Ranma staggered forward as bolts of pain coursing through his body made him

wince. Because his attention was focused on Urd, he didn't see Shinji's attack

until he was struck.

The young man lunged forward and punched Ranma in the back, right around his

right kidney, hitting with such force that it broke both of his right floating

ribs, the ribs that aren't attached to the ribcage like other ribs.

Ranma slashed at Shinji with his Lance, missing Shinji by mere inches as

Shinji jumped up, twisting in the air as the blade-like projection sailed right

past him, glancing him barely, cutting up a portion of his clothes.

The projection sailed forward in a downward angle, slicing into the ground.

Because of the angle of attack, the projectile entered the ground at a much

steeper angle, passing further inward through the Earth. The projection sliced

right through the Earth, the smaller portion around a third in size as the Earth

itself, that portion also containing the smaller portion that was apart of it.

Because of the Earth's polarity becoming effected and the sliced off section's

polarity being effected as well, they became readjusted and created an

attraction between them. The Earth didn't start separating around the cut on the

world. Instead, the attraction effect of the polarities prevented something like

that from happening.

Ranma turned his attention toward Urd and brought his weapon back, about to

resume his task at hand before the momentary distraction, Urd kicking toward his

forearm all the time.

He stabbed straight toward Urd's chest, intent on piercing her heart. He ended

up missing her and stabbing Ryoga in his own chest as Ryoga lunged toward her

and lifted the torso portion of her body upward so the spear would miss, even

though he would not be able to wrest her from Ranma's grasp.

Ryoga winced in pain as the Lance pierced right through his chest and out his

back. He looked down toward his chest and at the Lance shoved through him. He

could feel his life blood seeping out of him and drenching his clothes and the

Lance.

He slumped to the ground, a puddle of blood forming around him.

Ranma turned back toward Urd as she was swinging to a stop in his grasp, Ryoga

finally losing his grip over her. She just stared up at him, this terrified look

in her eyes.

"As I was saying, your life ends here!" Ranma sneered, about to stab her.

Thor struck the back of Ranma's head with all his might. He didn't really know

what he was supposed to do, but he knew Ranma seemed intent on killing Urd for

some reason and he had to do something to stop him. Something had to be done and

he knew he had to take action.

Ranma didn't so much as budge as the Hammer crashed against the back of his

head. All that hit seemed to have done was anger his and he turned around and

executed a roundhouse toward Thor's side.

He hit Thor with such force that it broke his arm as he tried to brace for it,

causing him to drop his Hammer. Every one of his rib on one side of the body

were also broken in the process as the impact sent him flying across the Lanson

Plateau where he ended up crashing into the mountain a few miles away from where

they were and ended up becoming embedded a few hundred feet within it.

Surprisingly, Thor had only been knocked out and badly hurt by such an attack.

He was much tougher that it would take a much more powerful attack to kill him.

Shinji, realizing that he had to do something, noticed the Hammer that Thor

had dropped. Realizing that that was the only weapon that seemed to be readily

available, he ran forward and picked it up. He couldn't help but notice that the

Hammer felt extremely powerful in his hands.

He brought the Hammer back, a smirk on his lips.

Ranma smirked in satisfaction at having rid of that pest, whoever it was, and

turned his head around and back toward Urd.

"You're finished!" Shinji shouted, bringing the Hammer downward and striking

Ranma.

The Hammer struck Ranma right on the top of his head, shattering his skull,

sending him crashing to the ground with devastating impact, a crater being

formed in the process.

The shaking of the ground from the impact caused Shinji to lose his balance

and fall down on top of him as the ground sagged downward. Urd ended up falling

down on top of the two of them, Ryoga's lifeless body sliding down the side of

the crater and coming to rest on top of them, drenching them in his blood.

Nothing but silence seemed to descend upon them, the only sound anyone could

hear being that of gusts of wind. Neither Shinji nor Urd seemed to dare to move

for several minutes.

"H-he's not moving," Urd said in disbelief.

She looked down at her ankle and noticed that Ranma no longer had a grip on

her. She kicked the arm away from her as if it disgust her and quickly got up to

her feet, expecting Ranma to get right back up.

To her surprise, Ranma didn't move.

"What the?" she said, "He's not getting up,"

Shinji slowly got up to her feet, "There's no way he's getting up from that

attack. He's as good as dead,"

"That's not possible," she said, "You only hit him with a Hammer,"

"A Hammer Ranma made," Shinji answered.

"What?" she asked. She quickly summoned up the information she needed, "What

the? The Hammer has the same properties as the Lance Ranma made a while ago,"

Shinji gave a smile, "I know,"

"How?" she asked, about to make her self know the answer.

Shinji scratched the top of his head, "It's kind of hard to explain,"

"Want me to just Will myself to know?" Urd asked, "Or would you like to have a

go at explaining?"

"I'll explain," he said.

"Go on," she asked, figuring she might as well let Shinji explain. "How's it

possible that you know this Hammer was made by Ranma?"

Urd didn't really care to know everything all the time. Sometimes, she didn't

mind just being explained something from someone if she didn't know the answers

right away and didn't feel the need to use her Will to know.

Shinji gave a slight smile.

"Well, there was this camera that he wore..."

new stuff 9/22

"I'm gonna ask about the camera later," Urd said, "But first, I need to fix up

this huge mess, starting with Asuka,"

"Why don't you just make yourself know the answer instead of asking the

question?" Shinji asked curiously.

Urd ignored the question. It was odd but she didn't care to know the facts

about everything if there was no need for her to know. She believed in a 'need-

to-know' basis. If she didn't need to know the details, then it didn't care to

use her powers to know.

She stood over Ryoga's body and made a gesture toward him, much like she was

waving a hand over him.

"Um, don't accidentally resurrect Ranma instead of Ryoga," Shinji said

nervously.

"I think I know what I'm doing," Urd smirked.

Shinji did have reason to be worried since Ranma was laying dead right next to

Ryoga. Of course, he wasn't aware that she had immense control of her powers and

would never make such a mistake.

Ryoga slowly stirred as the massive wound over his chest seemed to

miraculously disappear, the only signs that he had been hurt in the first place

the blood and tear in his shirt.

He looked up an Urd and saw her and Shinji looking down over him. Glancing

around, he saw Ranma lying right next to him, dead, the back of his head caved

in, a large puddle of blood forming around him.

"Y-you guys defeated him?" Ryoga asked, slowly getting up to his feet.

"Yes, but barely," Shinji said, "If it weren't for you shoving Urd out of the

way like that, Urd would've been killed. If it weren't for your sacrifice, Ranma

would've succeed,"

Ryoga shrugged, "I did what had to be done,"

Urd smiled warmly at Ryoga. Ryoga was definitely unique. The guy died for her

and simply shrugged off that fact like it was nothing.

She crouched down an touched Ranma's still form, teleporting him to a place

unknown to everyone but Urd. There were people up in Heaven awaiting his

arrival, to fix him back up and explain to him what happened. It had happed

before when Ranma went nuts, and it was going to happen again.

"Where'd you send Ranma?" Shinji asked curiously.

"Heaven," Urd stated, "I'm gonna deal with him later. But first, I have a lot

to fix up, quite a bit of mess here, all if it a result of Ranma's coming here,"

Urd made a gesture toward the mountain where Thor had been sent flying into,

intent on healing him and teleporting him over to where they were. She then

turned around and made few gestures in the direction of the battle field not

that far from where they currently were.

She had her work cut out for her.

Cyclops looked about as he held Jean close by.

Debris was flying all around. All the debris that had been on the ground

seemed to magically levitate up into the air, circling around in the air and

combining with other random pieces of debris.

At first, what Cyclops was seeing simply confused him. But after a minute,

when he started noticing all the pieces combining to form the destroyed tanks

and planes and warships and such, he instantly recalled what Ranma had done with

that collapsed building.

Cyclops couldn't help but feel like he was moving forward in time while time

all around him seemed to go in reverse. Tanks that were decimated could be seem

slowly coming to form as parts seemed to form around it to make it whole.

R-Ranma's undoing everything that's been done, Cyclops thought, feeling this

feeling of hope.

He looked down at Jean as he could see some of the bullet holes lodged in her

body emerge from the entry wounds, falling to the ground nearby. The wounds

could be seen slowly healing back up. When he noticed that, he looked down at

himself as he felt himself slowly starting to lose his sense of battle fatigue,

noticing all the cuts and bruises on his body starting to disappear as well.

Cyclops pressed a hand up against Jean's neck and could feel a weak pulse, as

if her heart had started to work again. He just stayed right where he was,

feeling this massive weight on his shoulders becoming lighter as he could tell

the pulse was getting stronger and stronger.

Jean's chest started to move up and down as her breathing seemed to resume.

Her breath could be seen against the cold air as she seemed to start breathing,

her breath was slow and steady, much like the way she was sleeping.

Cyclops did nothing, continuing to watch in amazement, ignoring everything

around him, focusing all his attention on Jean, feeling as if it was his own

Will that was causing all of this to happen.

He heard a grunt from nearby which caused him to turn his head.

When he looked, he noticed Cable rubbing his head, sitting upright while on

the ground.

"Ugh," Cable grunted in complete confusion.

"Cable, you're all right," Cyclops said in shock.

"What the heck happened?" Cable asked, trying to shake the cobwebs from his

mind.

Cyclops, realizing that Cable seemed to have been resurrected, quickly looked

down at Jean and noticed she was slowly coming to consciousness, slowly opening

her eyes.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes completely and realized she was

looking up at Cyclops as he looked down at her.

"What happened?" she asked, slowly sitting upright.

"Y-you're all right," Cyclops said in disbelief, as if he couldn't hear his

own words.

Jean looked around, realizing that she must have been knocked out in the

battle and wanting to assess the situations.

"Did we win?" she asked, "What happened to the sentinels?"

Cyclops looked around.

To his shock, he found himself staring toward a Wakandan tank nearby, looking

as good as new. He quickly stood up and looked around. It took a good minute

before he realized he was staring out toward the Wakandan Army that dotted the

battlefield. Heroes and super villains could be seen looking about in confusion,

wondering what was happening as well.

Cyclops noticed that everyone could be seen looking around in confusion much

like himself and Jean and Cable. Everyone that had survived the battle witnessed

the complete undoing of the destruction of the Wakandan Army as well as the

resurrections of every fallen Hero and super villain.

"What's going on?" Jean asked, standing up to be next to Cyclops.

Cyclops looked at Jean. Emotions started to overwhelm him as he realized Jean

was very much alive. The thought that she was gone, even though it was brief,

tore away at him.

Without warning, he reached up and placed both hands on her cheeks and kissed

her passionately. She received his kiss but was a bit confused one why he would

be kissing her in the middle of a battle.

"What's going on around here?" Jean asked, very confused, "What happened to

the sentinels? Where did all these tanks and places come from?"

"You were killed in battle," Cyclops stated.

"What?" she asked.

"I saw you," Cyclops said, "I was holding you dead in my arms not one minutes

ago. But now, you're fine. And from the looks of things, it seems like everyone

that was killed in battle is fine,"

"How's that possible?" she asked, "And what happened to the sentinels?"

"I think it's because of Ranma," Cyclops smiled, "He used his powers to get

rid of all the sentinels. Now that they're gone, he using them again to undo all

that has been done,"

She said nothing, not knowing what to say. What was a person to say in such a

situation? What was a person to say if she had just been told she had died and

was resurrected and that all the sentinels had been disposed of by Ranma?

There was almost nothing but silence throughout the battlefield. Everyone

seemed to be completely disorient and confused as to what had happened. A good

reason for this was that everyone was witnessing an actual Act of God taking

place right before their very eyes.

The confusion everyone was experiencing was their because of their inability

to comprehend what was going on or how something like that was happening.

"I-I can't believe Ranma's capable of doing something like this," Jean said in

awe, looking around, "Where is he?"

Cyclops realized something, "He...he was fighting someone. Yeah, what

happened to him?"

"Fighting someone? Who?" Jean asked, pretty sure that whoever Ranma was

fighting against, he would had won easily. Ranma's fighting abilities were

nothing to take lightly.

Cyclops said, "I'm not too sure. I saw two people fighting him at the same

time. I didn't recognize them. There was also this woman,"

"Where did they come from?" she asked.

"I don't know," he shrugged, "All I remember seeing was this portal opening up

right by where Ranma was and out emerging three people. All of a sudden, they

started attacking,"

"Well, we need to find him," Jean said, concerned.

Cyclops said, "I'm sure Ranma can handle himself,"

He glanced over where he saw Cable up and about heading off to see what the

heck was going on, never bothering to stick around after realizing Cyclops and

Jean seemed to be in the dark about what was going on as well.

He could see Logan approaching him and Jean.

"Do you know what happened?" Cyclops asked Logan, wondering if Logan might

know more about what was going on besides himself.

Logan said nothing. Instead, he walked right up to Jean and grabbed, one arm

around her slender waist and on the small of her back. The other was around her

side, palm pressed against the back of her neck.

"W-what are you doing?" Jean was confused.

Without warning, Logan kissed her passionately on the lips, not caring one bit

that her husband was standing right next to her. Logan was so glad to see Jean,

a woman he deeply cared for and was even in love with, that he didn't care if it

would piss off Cyclops.

Jean's eyes widened in absolute shock as Logan kissed her with a gentleness

that belied his rough exterior. She didn't really know what to do, completely

shocked at what was happening to her, the warmth of Logan's kiss enveloping her

body much like the way the warmth of a bath would envelop her.

It took around five seconds before Cyclops realized Logan was kissing his wife

passionately and took a course of action. He quickly stepped forward and shoved

Logan off Jean, pushing him away from her.

Jean fell down to the ground, this terrible blush on her cheeks. Logan just

licked his lips as if to savor the kiss as Cyclops sneered toward him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Cyclops shouted toward Logan, his

voice cold. The confusion he was supposed to be feeling about having seen

everything taken place a minute before was replaced with the anger and jealousy

he was feeling at having seen Logan kiss Jean.

"What do you think?" Logan smirked, "I guess I carried away at seeing Jean

alive and well again,"

Cyclops slowly raised one of his hands toward his visor, "Maybe I should get

carried away and blast you right in the chest,"

Jean jumped between the two of them, "Guys, there's no need to fight here,"

Cyclops looked like he was just about to blast Logan but stopped because of

Jean. Instead, he simply gritted his teeth and took a few breaths and calmed

himself down.

Jean continued to blush. What a very strange day she had had. She had been

kissed by three guys today, Cyclops, Ranma, and Logan. Okay, perhaps it was she

who kissed Ranma and purely by accident, but a kiss was a kiss was a kiss

afterall.

"So, what's goin' on 'round here?" Logan asked, wanting to change the subject,

"This looks like Ranma's doing,"

Cyclops glared toward Logan for a bit before he said, "We have no idea either.

I think it's him. I saw you talking to Ranma before and him just grabbing and

throwing you. What was that about?"

"I don't know," Logan said coldly, "But you bet I'm gonna pay in back for

that. But that's besides the point, I noticed he his eyes changed colors and it

looked like he didn't recognize me or somethin' when I was talking to him,"

"Eyes changed color? Didn't recognize you?" Jean asked, "What does that mean?"

Logan shrugged, "Beats me,"

"Was he possessed or something?" Cyclops asked.

"Who knows, but maybe she might be able to answer," Logan pointed.

Cyclops and Jean looked toward four figures approaching the battlefield.

They were Urd, Shinji, Ryoga, Asuka, and Thor.

new stuff 9/26

They group approached Cyclops and the others. It only took a minute for them

to reach the group's location. By the time the reached they reached them, Rogue

and Storm had come to assemble by where Cyclops was, having approached him to

find out what was going on and getting no answers.

Urd looked at Cyclops as he stepped forward to greet her.

"I'm Cyclops," Cyclops began.

"I know," Urd said, her language understood. She preferred to speak Japanese

so she alternated this entire world so that everyone understood Japanese. She

said, "Assemble the rest of the X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four here so I

can talk to everyone at once. I don't care to explain myself more than once

about what is going on here. There is no need to assemble the others,"

She turned toward Thor, "You too,"

"As you wish," Thor nodded before taking flight in a random direction. He had

his Hammer back with him. He had no real idea what was going on as well and

wanted to know

"Who are you?" Cyclops asked, wondering where Ranma was.

"Now," Urd said in a very commanding voice.

"Who are you?" Cyclops wanted to know before he did anything. He, like

everyone else there, needed to know who she was.

"Um, she's Urd," Shinji said.

Silence descended upon the group as everyone had recognized the name. They

remembered Ranma mentioning that Urd was none other than God. It took a moment

for them to recall how Ranma described her and notice that she seemed to fit the

description.

"So, you're God, huh?" Logan smirked Urd, not all that impressed. He wasn't

all that impressed when Ranma said he used to be God so he wasn't all that

impressed with Urd as well.

Urd looked at Logan for a bit as she took in the information as to who he was

and how he usually acted. She smirked, "Logan, you're way in over your head

here,"

Logan said nothing. There was definitely an aura to her that he was sensing, a

similar aura to her that he felt around coming from Ranma moments before. It was

an aura that she should definitely be trifled with.

"Yes, I'm God," Urd said, smiling a bit. It was kind of funny seeing people's

reactions to that. Most of them would be in a sense of disbelief, staring at her

in awe.

She instinctively looked around to make sure Ranma wasn't around. After a

moment, it dawned on her that he was gone. She had a bad experience with a first

impression once. She had been visiting a world, Ranma's world actually, to fix

an incident unrelated to Ranma's doings. Ranma had snuck up on her and smacked

her in the butt, to surprise her, completely unaware that she had Godly-

businesses to do with mortals and such, ruining her grand entrance.

"I came here to explain all that had happened and basically undo all that has

been done," she said.

"Undo?" Cyclops asked.

"I'll tell you after everyone is here," Urd said, "Go fetch everyone and bring

them here or do you want me to do it for you?"

Urd spoke with supreme authority. The tone of her voice seemed to be enough to

convince everyone there that they are to do what she told them to do.

They quickly scattered to collect everyone she requested.

"Why don't you just Will everyone here?" Shinji asked curiously, "It could

save you a lot of trouble. Heck, it could save you a lot of trouble if you just

Will everyone to know what's going on and what happened than trying to explain

them,"

"Just because I have the power doesn't mean I'm always eager to use it," Urd

said.

"I still don't get it," Shinji said.

"It's beyond your comprehension," Urd said, "Don't worry about it,"

"Ranma says that a lot," Shinji stated, "I think he says that because he

usually can't come up with a reason on the spot and uses it as his trump card,"

Urd narrowed her eyes toward Shinji, "Shinji, has anyone told you you're

starting to slowly act like Ranma in what you say? Ranma suffers from what

everyone consider 'foot-in-mouth' syndrome. You're slowly starting to show the

same symptoms,"

"Sorry," Shinji looked down.

Urd said, "Look, it's easier to just use all my powers and make everything

fine and just leave but I prefer to just explain things verbally. I don't take

shortcuts if I don't have to. Ranma believes in the same thing. Of course, he

would probably add something stupid like 'Besides, readers would complain if I

took shortcuts' which I have no idea what he would mean by that,"

Shinji started shivering as the cold weather seemed to start having an effect

on him. Ryoga seemed immune to the weather.

"I'm cold," Shinji complained, rubbing his arms.

"Oh, sorry," Urd said, gesturing toward the skies. The cold weather seemed to

disappear suddenly and grow warmer. It continued to grow warmer to the point

where the cold no longer affected Shinji for he stopped shivering, no longer

cold.

"Um, wouldn't it had been easier to just make me not get cold instead of

changing the weather?" Shinji asked meekly.

Urd gave an embarrassed look, "You know what? You have a point. I guess I went

overboard,"

"I kinda worry about you as God," Ryoga commented, "You sometimes go overboard

with your powers instead just using it slightly. I'm sure no one here speaks

Japanese but I'm pretty sure you changed this world's universal language to

Japanese. And I'm sure you could have just conjured Shinji a nice warm jacket to

wear instead of changing the weather,"

"Do you think YOU can do any better?" Urd retorted, "You're lucky I owe you my

life because, as God, I would have none of that,"

Shinji snickered. It was funny. Considering Urd is God, it was very funny how

God acted very much like a human. The only difference was that she could Will

herself into knowing anything about everything when it was needed. It was just

that she didn't really bother to do so, as if the God role was still new to her

and she still thinking like a person who was incapable of that. But then again,

perhaps it was just a preference on her part, to be more 'human' in nature than

'Godly'.

Since they have some time to kill before everyone was collected, there was

nothing much to do but converse.

"Hey, is it true that you see Luna Inverse as your rival?" Shinji asked from

out of the blue, "Ranma mentioned that once in some random conversation,"

"Ranma tells you everything, doesn't he?" Urd didn't seem to be amused with

being the subject of the conversation, "And for your information, she's no

longer a rival,"

"I know that, considering you have God-powers, but before then," Shinji said,

"When you and she fought a while back. It was almost a tie and she almost beat

you,"

"Hmph," Urd turned her head.

"You don't secretly hate Luna do you?" Shinji asked, concerned for Luna.

"Of course not," Urd quickly answered, "Of course I don't hate Luna. It's like

us thinking Ranma and Ryoga hate each other because of their scuffle before,

even though Ranma has God-powers like myself. He only fought Ranma because Ranma

was corrupted and needed to be stopped,"

"No, I just hate him," Ryoga stated.

"You know what's funny?" Shinji noticed.

"Don't say something stupid like Ranma would say," Urd warned Shinji.

"No," Shinji said, "It's kind of funny hearing you ask a question and answer

it yourself since the information comes to you on the fly,"

Urd said, "That's because I am answering my own questions on the fly. If I

need a question answered, I'll make myself know the answer. Of course, it isn't

usually until after I think of the question,"

"I know," Shinji said, "It's just funny hearing that,"

"Anyway..." Urd said, trying to think of something to say, coming up with

nothing. Only Ranma seemed to be skilled at changing subjects so easily.

Shinji said, "We're lucky things turned out okay,"

"Yes," Ryoga nodded, "I could've easily have gone the other way. Urd, I think

you should do something about this. This is the second time it's happened.

There's no telling if things would turn out okay if it happens a third time

around,"

"I know," Urd's lips were a thin line, "I'm going to do something about it,"

"Do what?" they both asked.

"I've been training Skuld to take over," Urd said, "In a few decades, she'll

be ready to take over my position as God. That way, I can use my powers to

remove Ranma's powers, as well as the threat of him getting corrupted,"

Ryoga scratched the back his head, "A few decades? Ranma basically went nuts

twice over the course of two years. You REALLY think he could go another few

decades of that not happening? Considering the pattern, we'll probably be trying

to stop him against around a year from now,"

Urd said nothing. That was very true.

"I'll think of something," Urd said.

"Hopefully soon," Ryoga's words struck home.

The group conversed about nothing important after that and hung around and

waited as everyone was collected.

After several minutes, a large group of people approached the three of them,

everyone collected and ready to hear what Urd had to say. Without warning, Urd

made quick gesture toward the group.

Everyone looked around as their surroundings seemed to disappear from around

them, instantly replaced with what looked like the interior of a large

livingroom.

"What the?" Captain America looked around, recognizing his surroundings, "This

is the Avengers Headquarters. We're in the Meeting Room,"

"That's right, I just teleported everyone from Antarctica back to

headquarters," Urd said.

"We're no longer in Antarctica?" Shinji asked Urd.

"No," she said, "There are people here that need to hear my explanation as

well, like Beast,"

Shinji scratched the back of his head, "Um, wouldn't it be better to just

teleport Beast to everyone in Antarctica instead of everyone to where Beast is?

It seems like you're going about it the hard way, like with you changing the

weather instead of creating some jackets,"

Urd said, "Shinji, in case you haven't notice there is no 'hard way' for me.

It's just as easy for me to do it one way as it is for another,"

"Um, okay," Shinji said meekly, "I guess you have a point,"

"Go get Beast, Mr. Fantastic, and Forge," Urd turned toward Thor.

"As you wish," Thor said, quickly heading out of the room.

Everyone stood around silently, merely shocked at how this person could

command Thor like he was one of her servants. This was Thor she was telling to

do something for her and him doing so!

Before long, Thor entered the Meeting Room, Beast, Mr. Fantastic, and Forge

accompanying them. All three of them seemed confused as to what was going on.

When they saw everyone in the Meeting Room, they became even more confused.

"What's going on here?" Beast asked, "How come you guys are here?"

Urd cleared her throat, "Well, now that everyone is here, I guess an

explanation is in order. First off, let me explain who we are. I'm Urd, this is

Ryoga and this is Shinji,"

"Um, hi," Shinji said softly.

"Hello," Ryoga said.

"I recommend everyone here keep an open-mind," Urd said, "You're going to be

very confused about what you hear. Some of the things you hear you will not

believe or understand. Frankly, it doesn't bother me,"

Everyone looked at one another, figuring they would brace themselves to hear

whatever they were going to hear. Almost all of them had no idea what the heck

was going on or who Urd was and how they got there, but they decided to stay

quiet to hear things out.

Urd began her explanation.

"I am God,"

The group listened intently as Urd went about explaining everything, starting

back as far as to exactly who Ranma was. It seemed like it wasn't until Urd

explained who he was that everyone seemed to slowly start to believe, that Ranma

was indeed a previous God. Urd basically retold everything Ranma had told them.

And because Thor seemed to readily accept everything, that was also a good

reason to believe what she was saying as well. Still, because of human

skepticism, everyone still felt the need to ask many questions about everything,

to try and make heads or tails out of anything.

"How come Ranma rarely uses his powers even though he has them?" Jean asked

curiously.

"The more Ranma uses his powers, the more 'corrupt' he becomes," Urd said,

matter-of-factly, the answers coming to her on the fly, "It's one of the reasons

why Ranma doesn't go around using his powers all the time. Him getting corrupted

by his own powers is the sole reason WHY he doesn't use his powers in the first

place,"

"I-I never knew that," Asuka said.

"No one really knew that," Urd said, "Only Ranma and I knew of it,"

Asuka asked, "How come you never told any of us?"

"Because I know Ranma's smart enough not to let the power corrupt him," Urd

answered for him, "Unfortunately, I never anticipated that Ranma would actually

go into a blind rage and use his powers which resulted in him getting

corrupted,"

Asuka said nothing. No one said anything.

"How do you know all this?" Cyclops asked.

"Because I'm all-knowing," Urd answered, "Any question you could possibly ask,

I can answer, provided I feel like answering it for you,"

Everyone said nothing, seemingly believing her.

Urd shrugged, "Ranma did speak the truth when he said he didn't use the powers

because it makes him feel less human. That's because it's true. He's used to

living like a human even though he definitely isn't. He just never bothered to

tell you the other reason for him not using his powers, that overuse of his

powers will corrupt him,"

"If that's the case, how come I've seen Ranma use his powers for random things

like, say, fixing his shirt?" Psylocke asked, remember him using his powers to

basically magically mend his ripped shirt from when he used his wings.

"I'll try and explain everything to the best of everyone's abilities," Urd

said, "Ranma's powers have certain categories, scales if you might add. There

are actually three kinds of categories. Human, Innate, and Will. Human abilities

are abilities he originally had when he gained his God-powers. Something like

the ability to shoot ki-blasts, jump high, fight really well, those are all

elements from when he was human. Regardless of his God-powers, he will always

have those abilities. Those abilities were carried over from when he used to be

human, before he gained God-powers,"

"What about Innate and Will?" Beast asked.

"I'll get to it," Urd said, "The ki-blast you see Ranma use to create that

tunnel for you guys through the mountain, that was his human ability. Ranma's a

very powerful human, beatable, but very powerful nonetheless. If you strip him

of his powers, he can probably go toe-to-toe with someone like, say, Thor. Of

course, he will probably lose after a long and fierce battle, but he will

definitely earn Thor's respect as an opponent had they never known each other

and fought,"

"Wait, you're saying that a regular human can take on Thor?" Beast asked.

Urd nodded, "A mutant on this world is nothing more than a powerful human. The

problem is that the word 'mutant' on this world gives off this feeling that

mutant and humans are different. Mutants are born with special abilities. Humans

aren't and must work at acquiring special abilities. That's one of the main

differences,"

Everyone was silent.

"Ranma is just like you guys," Urd said.

"Ranma's a mutant?" Cyclops asked, "He's like us?"

Urd said, "No. He's not a mutant. Mutant is just a relative term. You

'mutants' are simply humans born with powers. Ranma is simply a human that

acquired power through hard work and training. This is why Ranma finds annoyance

in seeing 'mutants' use their powers. He worked hard to get his powers and

understands what it's like to acquire such powers. Mutants just use their powers

freely and take it for granted, never realizing the gift they have been

bestowed,"

"We use our powers for good," Beast said, "We know we've been bestowed powers

which is why we use it to try and make a better world,"

"That may be true but not entirely," Urd shrugged, "You think you're using

your powers to improve the world, but you're not. It's only making it worse. You

are using your powers to fight villains with similar powers. The problem is that

the way you help out the humans, it's akin to just giving humans a fish to eat

instead of teaching them how to fish. You're slowing down the eventual evolution

of humans because of this,"

"But we are born with powers," Beast said, "How can we teach humans this if

they aren't born with such powers?"

Urd said, "You THINK you can't teach humans unless they are born with powers

but that's not the case. It's unfortunate but this world has several decades to

go before it's realized that humans simply have to dig deeper to bring forth the

powers 'mutants' are born with,"

"Are you saying all humans have the potential for mutant abilities?" Beast

asked.

"Enough with saying 'mutants'," Urd said, "I don't want to hear that word

anymore. Use the word 'special' instead. 'Mutant' is just a relative term

exclusive to this world. And to answer your question, yes, humans have the

potential for special powers just like those born with it. Special powers that

you're born with can be arrived at through hard work by those that aren't born

with such powers if they work hard at it,"

Asuka said, "Hey, that makes sense. It's like how Herb is born with the

ability to manipulate ki and Ranma worked hard at learning to use ki,"

"Exactly," Urd smiled, "You're getting the picture,"

"There are a lot of things they you don't understand at the moment," Urd said,

"Heck, I'm telling you some things that you aren't expected to find out about

until decades from now,"

Logan jerked a thumb toward Thor, "So whatcha tellin' me is that my mutant

powers are no different than Thor's divine Asgardian powers here?"

Urd said, "Logan, didn't you hear what I said? 'Mutant' is a relative term and

I don't care to hear it,"

"Sorry, bub," Logan shrugged, "I meant special-"

Urd waved her hand, causing Logan to suddenly disappear.

"W-what did you do to Logan?" Cyclops asked.

"I removed him from this plane of existence," Urd said, "I won't be

patronized, even if Logan's personality makes him the way he is. Don't worry,

I'll bring him back when I'm done explaining,"

Everyone nervously looked at one another.

"To answer Logan's question, his and Thor's share little difference," Urd

said, resuming her explanation, "Logan's is specialized in something while

Thor's in something else. Ranma's just like them, perhaps more wide ranged in

his use of powers to be able to deal with someone like Thor,"

Beast scratched his head, "So what you're telling me is that if you stripped

Ranma of all his God-powers, he can still take on Thor?"

Urd thought for a moment, "Not entirely. As a pure, regular human, he would

eventually succumb to Thor. However, if you add in the fact that he has Innate

powers, that's a different story,"

"What about Innate powers?" Beast asked.

"Those are powers Ranma was born into when he became God and has no control

over," Urd said, "There're only two things for that. Infinite invulnerability

and infinite strength. The invulnerability he has is because of his AT Field. He

has an innate AT Field that protects him from getting killed. He has two of

those kinds of AT Fields, a voluntary and involuntary one. The involuntary one

he always possess and prevents him from being fatally or even seriously wounded.

It's always on no matter what, but only shows up when he's being attacked. What

does that mean? The ONLY weakness Ranma has has been negated because of that,"

"What do you mean?" Cyclops asked, "Ranma actually has a weakness?"

"He can be hit from behind," Urd said, "That's his weakness, hit him from

behind. Of course, that's much easier said than done. Only the element of

surprise can probably land a single blow on him from behind. But after that, if

he's aware of what's going on, it's impossible to ever hit him from behind if he

doesn't want you to hit him from behind,"

"What about his voluntary AT Field?" Beast asked.

"That's categorized as his Will powers," Urd said, "Anything that requires

Will is in that category. If he has to think it, then it's Will. His voluntary

AT Field is impenetrable, the ultimate barrier. He can cast it over himself or

anyone he wants. He did that over Asuka for most of his stay here,"

"He did?" everyone was surprised.

Asuka said nothing, remembering Ranma having told her that.

"For the most part," Urd said, "Ever since her arrival here, she had an AT

Field protecting her. She could've held a nuclear bomb as it blew up and it

would've left her unscathed. Ranma's not a stupid person. He knew that there's a

chance that people might try and indirectly go after him through Asuka, so he

eliminated that possibility upon his arrival,"

Everyone was shocked to hear that.

"Ranma's very clever," Beast said.

"He does stupid stuff, but, yes, he is smart," Urd concurred, "Anyway, Ranma

stopped casting his AT Field over Asuka after the incident with Hulk getting so

angry and blowing up the mountain in an attempt to kill Ranma. That incident had

been the changing point. Because Ranma had used a large sum of his powers to fix

the mountain and put everything back to normal like the way it was before it got

blown up, he knew that if he used it one last time, he would've been corrupted.

Ranma can only use his God-powers a certain amount of times before it corrupts

him,"

"W-we never knew that," Cyclops said.

"I just said that to Asuka before, no one knew that," Urd said, "No one needed

to know,"

"Had he told us, we wouldn'tve gave him problems about using his powers,"

Nightcrawler said, feeling like he and Beast had pressured Ranma into fixing the

mountain.

Urd laughed a bit, "Actually, with Ranma, he could care less how much you

pressured him. You could get all angry at him for not bringing back any of your

fallen comrades after you found out he can resurrect people and it wouldn't

bother him one bit,"

"We've had a discussion with him about that," Psylocke mentioned, "He said

something about how it's very selfish to want to bring someone back to life just

because you miss them,"

Urd nodded, "That is. That's very selfish. I wouldn't bring back any of your

friends under such circumstances either. Getting back to the subject, whenever

Ranma uses his Will, it takes him one step closer to being corrupted,"

"If that's the case, why does he use Will to do something like mend his

shirt?" Psylocke asked.

Urd said, "Ranma had never anticipated he would use his powers so much. As

time passes, he found himself using more and more of his powers, be it for

something stupid that he did like breaking Thor's Hammer and Captain America's

shield, or something important like saving Cyclops' life tearing the Blackbird

apart some moments before it crashed. It's unfortunate that most of his use of

his powers came from his own stupidity, but still, a good amount of it went to

actually helping you guys out. Had he known that he should've saved on the use

of his powers, he would've. Ranma may be pretty good at planning ahead, but even

he never planned for something like this to happen,"

"What about his wings?" Asuka asked, "Does that constitute as use of Will?"

Urd said, "No. That is a part of him. It is one of his powers before he became

God,"

"So how come he doesn't fly much?" Psylocke asked curiously.

"Mostly preference," Urd said, "He lived most of his life on land. He's only

recently been able to fly and is not used to it nor as effective at dodging

while in flight than on the ground on his feet,"

Beast scratched his chin, "That would seem rather odd considering Ranma would

have another axis to work with if he flew. On the ground, Ranma could only dodge

forward, backwards, left, and right. With fight, he has another set of axis, up

and down. You'd figure the extra set of axis would make him even harder to hit,"

"Not if you're Ranma," Urd smirked, "When he flies, he is less agile. Also,

concerning his ki-blasts, there are two kinds of them. There's the one he shoots

like back when he used to be human, and then there's the ones that he shoots

backed with Will, which is infinitely powerful and can tear the Universe in half

if he wanted to,"

"This is all so crazy," Jean said, "I can't believe some of the stuff I'm

hearing. It's like Ranma's been lying to us all this time,"

"He hasn't been lying to you guys," Urd said, "He simply didn't tell you some

major details because it is on a need-to-know basis. You guys didn't need to

know which is why he never told you. To him, something like that was actually

trivial because this is Ranma we're talking about. He would never needlessly

allow himself to get corrupted, not after the crap Shinji and I had to go

through to stop him the first time around. It's just unfortunate that even

someone like Ranma made a grave mistake, the mistake of letting his anger get

the best of him. Funnily enough, I know for a fact that not a single person

would NOT have done what Ranma had done had they've been in his situations,"

No one said a word. It wasn't as if they could argue with God.

"Um, why did Apocalypse do all this? How'd he assemble such an army?" Cyclops

asked, curious for answers, "Was it some kind of test you were giving us?"

"Apocalypse was a test for this world I brewed up," Urd said, shrugging, "More

than half of you Heroes were supposed to die in the battle,"

"More than half of us were supposed to die?" Cyclops said in disbelief.

Urd nodded, "Yes. And with no one coming back either. It's pretty weird how

some of you people die and come back on this world. It's kind of funny if you

think about it because it's like some of you guys can't stay dead,"

Asuka said, "Urd, you mean to say the people here have died previously

before?"

Urd nodded, "Quite a few, but they always pop back up alive again. Anyway, the

point is is that the problem was Ranma. He screwed everything up between

Apocalypse and this world. His encounter with Apocalypse scared the heck out of

him,"

"H-he did?" everyone was surprised.

"What DID Ranma do to Apocalypse back in the Philippines?" Captain America

asked Cyclops, "We Avengers heard details about Ranma fighting Apocalypse there

but don't know the details,"

Urd said, "Apocalypse's eyes were opened up. Ranma came so close to killing

Apocalypse but never anticipated that the Celestrial Armor Apocalypse wears

managed to protect him from the ki-blast. It's unfortunate he used a really

powerful regular ki-blast instead of one backed by his Will. Had that happened,

Apocalypse would've been destroyed,"

Cyclops scratched his head, "I remember Apocalypse actually saying 'Help me'

too. For something like that to happen, Apocalypse probably got really

desperate,"

"Because of their encounter, Ranma opened up Apocalypse's eyes," Urd said,

"Ranma made him realize that there was some wickedly strong ally on the X-Men

that he actually feared having to go up against. Apocalypse, fearing Ranma,

began assembling an army to specifically take down Ranma. Little did he know he

just had a brush with a former God and that he was out of his league dealing

with the wrong person,"

"I never believed that would happen, that Apocalypse would come up with a plan

so devious," Beast stated, "This is beyond anything he had ever thrown us,"

Urd nodded, "Yes. The rule of thumb here to remember is that a desperate

person will surprise you. Apocalypse was definitely a prime example,"

"I still don't get it, how is all this Ranma's fault?" Jean asked.

Urd said, "Had Ranma not been here to fight Apocalypse, Apocalypse would've

gone on with his plans and let loose an army of around twenty adamantium

sentinels on the world. The world would've assembled and defeated the army but

with heavy losses. But because of his brush with Ranma, Apocalypse realized he

needed much more to deal with someone like Ranma so he assembled an army almost

fifty times as many adamantium sentinels. And not only that, he built them with

suppressors to make the elimination of Ranma's 'mutants' friends easier so they

could all deal with Ranma. The EMP generator stolen to render the Molecular

Rearranger useless was also a result of Ranma because Apocalypse believed that

if he rendered the Molecular Rearranger useless, it meant none of the others

could do anything against the sentinels, leaving the sentinels free reign to

attack Ranma,"

"I can't believe Apocalypse somehow managed to mass produce the Molecular

Rearranger," Beast added.

"Apocalypse figured the only thing that could be used to deal with adamantium

sentinels was some kind of adamantium-based defense," Urd answered, "That was

why he outfitted each and every one with a Molecular Rearranger,"

Beast scratched his head, "That seems odd. If that was the case, it would mean

Apocalypse own sentinels can hurt themselves,"

"That is the case, but with numbers, should you manage to somehow control a

lone sentinel, the others would've been able to deal with it," Urd said, "That

is why no lone sentinel had the Molecular Rearranger. Apocalypse believed that

for the Molecular Rearranger to work, it needed to be protected from the EMP

generators the other sentinels possessed. Therefore, that lone sentinel carrying

the Molecular Rearranger would've been Apocalypse's entire army's Achilles heel.

Should you manage to take control of that lone sentinel, its EMP-shielded

Molecular Rearranger would've been enough to take out the rest of the army,"

Cyclops said, "How did Apocalypse think up all of this? He never thought this

far ahead and had come up with plans like what had happened,"

"Apocalypse never went up against a being like Ranma," Urd said, "Apocalypse

is a lot smarter than people give him credit for. Because he is basically

immortal and will never die of old age and such, he has patience on his side. It

doesn't bother him much if his plans fail countless times because he has time on

his hands. With his brush with Ranma, it woke him up that perhaps he doesn't

have time on his hands, that Ranma and he might clash once again and he will

lose. That is why he chose the initiative to try and take out Ranma before Ranma

could take him out. Of course, he had no idea exactly who Ranma was and believed

he was actually beatable, a fatal error on his part,"

"I can't believe he could create so many things," Beast said, "We understand

he does have alien technology to work with and they are far more advanced than

our worlds, but to be able to acquire a device and mass produce it is very

scary,"

Urd smiled, "Apocalypse would've been able to develop the technology on his

own without the need to steal it. He simply stole it because it would've been

quicker to reverse-engineer a device and find out how it works than to develop

it from scratch. He was scared and believed he didn't have the time to develop

it from scratch which is why he stole devices like the Molecular Rearranger and

the EMP generator, all so he could figure out how they worked and mass produce

them and outfit them on his sentinels. A scared Apocalypse is far more devious

than a patient one,"

"Had Ranma not shown up, what would've happened?" Beast asked curiously.

Urd said, "The sentinels would've been defeated by the Savage Land vibranium.

The casualties would've occurred during the time everyone tried to get the

vibranium in close enough to be effective. This is because no one would've

thought to create a Savage Land vibranium weapon. Also, the Hulk wouldn'tve been

mind-controlled to destroy the Savage Land vibranium mine since the use of such

vibranium against Apocalypse would've never crossed Apocalypse's mind. Also, the

EMP generator and built-in suppressors would never have been put into effect,"

"It's like y'have our entire future mapped out fer us," Rogue stated.

"Yes, I did," Urd said, "Of course, Ranma is the monkey wrench that ends up in

my carefully woven gears. His presence disrupts everyone's intended destiny and

sends everything out of whack. Right this moment, everyone on this world is

without a destiny,"

"Wow, so that's why you're always pissed because Ranma goes world-hoping,"

Asuka said, "He disrupts the destiny of one person, and that person disrupts the

destiny of someone else and so on,"

"Exactly," Urd let out an annoyed breath.

"Why would you do that, test our world with something like that?" Cyclops

asked, "Why did you want us to lose our brethren?"

"Because I'm God," Urd said, "I do what I want. I created EVERYTHING that

exists in your world, absolutely everything. And for your information, your

world will constantly be tested, to keep your skills sharp and prevent them from

waning,"

Cyclops said, "It seems like we have it bad compared to everyone else, what

with the fact that we were specifically created just to be pawns,"

Urd laughed, "I find it really funny how everyone has something to complain

about. You know what my answer to that is? Tough. Would you like to get a

glimpse of what I can give you to make you REALLY complain? I can show you what

you would consider 'real suffering' if you like,"

Cyclops held his hands up quickly, "No need. Ranma had mentioned about that

and I would very much like to not know about it,"

"My advice to everyone here is 'quit your complaining'," Urd said, "You're

complaining about trivial matters,"

"Um, so all that had happened...was all because of Ranma?" Jean asked, hoping

to change the subject.

"Yes," Urd said, "What happened is both a direct and indirect result of him

showing up here. I know you don't know Ranma well, but this guy has single-

handedly wrecked worlds almost beyond repair. He has wrecked worlds so badly

that the only thing I could do is just wipe everything out and recreate

everything,"

Everyone was silent.

"How come you let him do that?" Beast asked.

"Because of the Big-O pressure point," Asuka muttered, crossing her arms

across her chest.

"Asuka!" Urd blushed.

"Big-O?" everyone looked at one another, curious as to what that meant.

Urd snapped her fingers to rewind time by a few seconds. That was too

embarrassing that she didn't want anyone to have seen or remembered her reaction

to such a comment. She was God and had an image to uphold.

"Um, so all that had happened...was all because of Ranma?" Jean asked again,

everyone unaware that time had been reversed for a short moment.

"Yep," Urd said. She quickly changed the subject, "I know it bothers everyone

here that believe they make their own destiny, but you're going to have to live

with it. You are destined for certain things and this world was destined to live

normally until I showed up to tell this world to get ready to fight an opponents

more powerful than anyone could possibly comprehend,"

"W-we're like pawns?" Captain America said, "I don't like the thought of

that,"

"Didn't I say to quit your complaining?" Urd asked coldly, "It doesn't matter

what you like or don't like. If you don't like it, I'll do you the favor and

removed you from existence this very moment. I can do it, you will be removed

from complete existence. No one will even remember you,"

Captain America said nothing.

"I'm not some tyrant God," Urd said, "Sure, this universe was created by me to

deal with Ranma, but that also gives you a purpose for being here. You were

created to take up arms to fight a former God,"

"How would we fair against someone like that?" Psylocke had to ask.

"Not well at all," Urd gave a smirk, "You guys CAN NOT defeat him. However,

I'm sure that you guys will be successful in slowing Ranma down and distracting

him so that I can make the killing blow,"

"We're just pawns to be slaughtered just to slow someone down?" Psylocke said.

Urd shrugged, "Sorry, but, yes, that's basically the gist of it. That's why

Ranma isn't aware of this world, because I created it and kept it secret from

him, knowing one day, should it occur, I would end up luring Ranma to this world

so that everyone could fight against him as a universal whole,"

"But how does he know about the adamantium?" Asuka asked, "If he doesn't know

about this world, how does he know about that adamantium from this world?"

"Skuld let it slip to him," Urd sighed, "Had she not had accidentally told

him, he wouldn'tve known of this world,"

"Who's Skuld?" Cyclops asked.

"She visited this world about during this world's past," Urd said, "She came

up with this formula for making some super strong metal and secretly visited

this world in the past. She visited the person called Dr. Myron MacLain. While

he was sleeping, she used her powers to fuse this world's vibranium with an iron

alloy to create Captain America's shield. And thus, adamantium was discovered,"

Everyone's jaw seemed to drop.

"Skuld was the mysterious factor that somehow fused those two alloys to form

adamantium that no one understood how it came about until today," Urd smirked,

"Skuld brought adamantium to this world. Of course, she gets all happy and tells

Ranma of what she did, completely forgetting about the fact that Ranma shouldn't

know about this world in the first place. Through complete luck, Ranma happens

to remember the thing about adamantium and decides to come here to get some to

make an engine. This is why Ranma isn't aware of this world's uru, which is

considered stronger than adamantium, because Skuld told him about the adamantium

she made. Had she mentioned about uru, I'm sure Ranma would've dropped in on

Thor and asked him for some uru instead of dropping in on the X-Men and asking

them for adamantium,"

"It probably would've been easier since I can readily acquire uru," Thor

stated.

Urd laughed, "Yes, it would've. He probably would've been here and gone within

a day instead of staying around causing trouble and screwing up this world,"

Everyone was silent.

"Speaking of Thor, it seems like he knows you," Beast said.

Thor said, "I know of her. It doesn't mean I know her,"

"Thor is aware of me cause I let him know," Urd said, "Thor was to become the

general of this universe's army when they band together to fight Ranma. Why do

you think he knows about me and Ranma? Because should the day come and Ranma

gets corrupted, I would simply show up and tell Thor to assemble this universe's

Heroes and Villains to fight Ranma, who would be on my tail. That is why Thor

has this odd blind devotion toward Ranma, because I made it so that he has faith

in God, so that he will never question me and will do as he's told. It just so

happens that I never anticipated for Ranma to show up here and the blind faith

he is supposed to have on me holds the same for Ranma,"

Everyone gasped. Thor said nothing.

Thor looked a bit saddened by this. Was his blind faith toward both Urd and

Ranma implanted within him?

"I gave you that blind faith because I needed someone of your character

trusting in me, even if it is blindly," Urd said, "Heck, that's why he changed

his way of speech, because Ranma had requested he not say stuff like 'thee' and

'thou' and Thor actually did that. I needed you to assemble this universe's army

when the time came without questioning it because time would've been of the

essence,"

Thor seemed to find comfort in that statement.

"How was I to assemble the universe's army?" he asked curiously.

Urd held one hand forward and snapped her fingers with the other hand. A

bright light suddenly appeared over her extended hand and disappeared just as

quickly, leaving behind an object in its place.

Everyone regarded the object in her hand. It looked like a golden left-handed

glove with a different colored gem embedded in each knuckle as well as one in

embedded in the center of the glove. They all noticed one of the gems were

missing though.

Everyone's eyes widened in shock.

"By Odin's Beard! That's the Infinity Gauntlet!" Thor's shock was every

bit as tangible as the rest of the others that recognized the object in Urd's

hand.

The Infinity Gauntlet, with its six embedded gems, was considered the most

powerful item in existence. It gave the wearer the ability to do anything,

absolutely anything. There were six gems, soul, mind, power, reality, space and

time, and each gem had complete control over its special characteristic. Anyone

that possessed the Infinity Gauntlet could control all six characteristics of

the universe.

Urd smiled, "Yes it is. It's the Infinity Gauntlet,"

"It's almost complete too," Beast stated, "It seems to be missing its soul gem

though,"

Urd looked down at the glove and noticed one of the gems were missing, "Well

I'll be,"

She snapped her fingers, a bright light appearing next to her. When it

disappeared, it revealed a very powerfully built man that had gold skin, short

blond hair, and a gem located right in the center of his forehead. The man had

this confused look on his face, disoriented as to what had just happened and how

he got there.

"A-Adam Warlock!" several Avengers and X-Men shouted, recognizing the man.

Urd reached over and brushed the man's bangs aside and plucked the gem from

his forehead.

"What the-" the man named Adam said in confusion.

Before the man could do anything, Urd snapped her fingers again as the bright

light engulf the man named Adam Warlock and disappeared along with him.

Shoving the gem she plucked from the man's forehead into the empty spot on the

glove, Urd smiled, "There, now we've got ourselves the Infinity Gauntlet,"

Everyone seemed to be in a state of shock at what they had seen.

"W-where did you send Adam?" Beast stammered.

"Back to the grassy field where I plucked him from," Urd said, "He was

sleeping under a tree. Anyway, this completes the Infinity Gauntlet. I'd give

that to Thor to use to assemble the army to fight against Ranma,"

She extended the glove out to Thor to take hold of, to feel in his own hands.

Thor took the glove and looked at it, regarding it intently like it was some

priceless artifact.

"Oh yeah, I'd also give him the rest of the items," Urd said, snapping her

fingers again. A bright light appeared right by her feet and disappeared,

leaving behind several pieces of items.

She began picking the items up and handing them to Thor, "There's also more

pieces than then Infinity Gauntlet. Here's the Infinity Breast Plate. And here's

the Infinity Boots, and the Infinity Helm, and the Infinity Greaves and the

Infinity Buckle and so on. After you put on all the items, you end up wearing

the Infinity Armor which gives you similar powers to Ranma's own. That way, you

can use it to force entire legions of alien races from various galaxies not

interested in helping out to join in your army,"

No one said a word.

"Um, there's such thing as the Infinity Helm and Infinity Greaves and...and

everything else that adds up to the Infinity Armor?" Captain America asked, "I

knew such things existed,"

Urd said, "Oh, that's because no one has found it yet,"

No one said a word once again.

Urd snapped her fingers as the Infinity items disappeared suddenly.

"I know this may all come as a shock to you, but things like this happen," Urd

said, "It's more of a shock because it's very hard to comprehend what you're

dealing with, which is one of the reasons why you don't know about it in the

first place, it's generally too hard to comprehend and brings you more questions

than answers,"

"It sure seems so," Cyclops said, "For every answer you give us, it makes us

have to ask more questions to ask that,"

Urd nodded, "Yes. Ranma told you that. It holds true for what he tells you and

what I tell you. We simply know things you're never going to ever understand,"

Everyone was silent.

"How did Apocalypse come out with so many sentinels?" Beast asked, grateful

that Urd wasn't like Ranma and didn't seem to mind being asked so many

questions, "How did he come across so much adamantium to make so many?"

"He didn't," Urd said, "None of the sentinels were made of adamantium,"

"R-really?" everyone gasped.

"All of them were simply laced with adamantium," Urd said, "Someone like

Magneto could've dome some serious damage to those sentinels had he not been

taken out so early in the fight. It's just unfortunate that adamantium sentinels

and adamantium-laced sentinels are basically just as hard to defeat. The only

main difference between the two is that the Savage Land vibranium weapons works

more effectively against the adamantium-laced ones. Of course, it's moot since

they were using those their built-in Molecular Rearrangers to fix 'heal'

whatever damage is done by those weapons,"

Everyone was silent.

"Several sentinels laced with adamantium did perish in battle," Urd said,

"Like the ones that were killed when the warship crashed on them. Had they been

made of complete adamantium, they would had survived. It's just too bad nothing

shy of Thor throwing his Hammer with all his might or Hulk going completely

berserk and shooting energy blasts from his hands could do enough damage. The

sentinels are sentinels and they have records off all the Heroes and super

villains and such which is why all the people that could take them down, like

Magneto, were taken out within the first minutes of battle, because their most

immediate threats needed to be neutralized first,"

Everyone remained silent.

"Also, even though they were adamantium-laced, just the sheer numbers are

overwhelming so I guess it's moot whether or not they're made of adamantium or

not," Urd shrugged.

"Adamantium is the strongest metal in this world's known universe," Urd stated

matter-of-factly.

"But what about-" Beast began.

"The metal, uru?" Urd finished for him, "Afterall, uru came smash through

adamantium which makes it stronger? That's not the case. Uru is enchanted which

makes it seems stronger. Remember, I mentioned that uru is 'considered' stronger

than adamantium even though it isn't. Remove the enchantment and uru is no

stronger than steel. Of course, the enchantment has yet to be discovered as well

as the way to remove it,"

Thor just gasped as Urd's explanation seemed to turn his world upside down.

"Like I said, the more answers you hear, the more questions you'll have," Urd

shrugged.

"How come Ranma went berserk in the first place?" Beast asked, "You said that

it was because of him overusing his powers. But what leads to that?"

Urd said, "There's a limit between how many times he can use his powers and

how powerful those powers are that he uses. Power corrupts. It's a 'necessary

evil'. It's a preventative measure that has been instilled in the gaining of

power. That way, if a person becomes too powerful, they usually become corrupted

which usually leads to them making mistakes which will result in their own

death. Those powers corrupt in a way where you're either corrupted or not. It's

not a slow gradual process,"

Everyone seemed to nod in understanding.

Urd continued on, "And above that, Ranma's also flawed. He was a human that

acquired divine powers and that wasn't supposed to really be the case. Ranma was

supposed to have relinquished his sense of humanity when he acquired those

powers to prevent something like that from happening. Unfortunately, he

desperately clings to it, something no one but he himself could understand, and

because of that, he can get corrupted,"

Shinji scratched his head, "But wouldn't that mean God before Ranma and Rei

was wrong, to not have foreseen this in advanced?"

Urd shook her head, "Oddly enough, yes. God isn't perfect. Damn close to

perfect, but not perfect. Of course, He can make it seem perfect by simply

undoing and redoing things correctly,"

"Does that mean I can become corrupted as well?" Shinji asked in concern.

"No," Urd said, "You don't know how it works, since you've never become God,

so you're in no danger. Think of those powers as the pieces of a gun. It's all

dismantled in front of you. If you're like Ranma or myself, you'll know how to

put those pieces together. But because you don't understand it, you can't put it

together and use that gun, the gun that would eventually corrupt you. Besides,

you never had those particular powers to begin with. All you have is the

properties of myself and Ranma while not having the powers,"

"Oh man," Shinji said, "That's a relief,"

"It means that you can tread on divine land where no one else but Ranma or I

can tread," Urd said, "You can tread where humans aren't allowed to tread.

That's all. But what really matters is that it allows you to wield weapons that

can kill God,"

"Um, what about Rei?" Shinji asked, "She used to be God,"

"Rei CAN get corrupted," Urd said, "But I can stop her so I'm not worried. But

because she has exceptional self-control, there's nothing much to worry about

with her overusing her powers,"

"So she's immortal like Ranma?" Shinji asked.

"Yes," Urd shrugged, "But over time, if she doesn't use it, it will disappear

and she will simply become human. Unlike with Ranma, I'm confident I don't have

to watch over Rei overusing her powers like Ranma would,"

"How long before it disappears?" he asked.

"A few eons," Skuld said, "She'll need to live a few eons without using her

powers once and she will revert back to her human form,"

Shinji said nothing.

"The same goes for Ranma as well," Urd said, "And myself, and the first God.

If we no longer want our powers, we've got a loooong time to wait,"

"How come you're telling us all this?" Beast asked, "Aren't you telling us

sensitive materials that my jeopardize your role as God. You're mentioning

things like how to kill God and such,"

Urd laughed, "No offense, but you give yourself too much credit. You're NOT

going to kill me. I could let all of existence know of how I can be killed an no

one will ever reach such a level without my knowing of it let alone kill me.

Club-God is a pretty elite club,"

Shinji asked, "What about Third Impact? Someone could cause that and ascend to

the role of God and overthrow you, right?"

Urd laughed, "What do you take me for, an idiot? I removed that path to God-

hood long ago. And before you ask about what would happen with Third Impact on

that world you visited not too long ago to retrieve Unit-01, they caused Third

Impact, but their world was destroyed and no one survived. The only survivors

are the Misato, Asuka, and Ritsuko that you brought back,"

"I can't believe you would let that happen," Shinji said.

Urd smiled, "Heh, just think of it as this. You don't mess with God. I'm

generally nice, but I can be a real bitch if I wanted to,"

Shinji said, "Oh,"

Urd smirked, "And before you go on asking what I would do if I had a period

like Ranma would most likely say, let's just say you don't wanna ask that

question,"

"I was not going to ask such a question," Shinji held his hands up

defensively.

Urd sighed, "I guess not,"

Ranma was so unique that she grew to miss his way of conversing. She, much

like most people, found amusement at Ranma's lack of tact. He never said

anything that ever offended people, not horribly, but he did usually say stuff

that would anger them. She missed being riled up by simple words.

"What happened to Apocalypse?" Beast asked.

"He got away," Urd said, starting to tire of answering questions, "He was

never on this planet to begin with. He watched everything that had occurred from

his base up on the moon,"

Cyclops said, "All of this, all that we've been through, and we never got even

close to defeating Apocalypse?"

Urd smiled, "That's correct. It's not Apocalypse's destiny to die. He is

destined to die by Cable's own hands. Because he was in Antarctica, destiny will

have it where he isn't killed until Cable does the deed. That's the way things

work,"

Beast said, "But you said that Ranma came very close to killing him. Does that

mean destiny interfered which is why Ranma never killed him?" Beast asked

thoughtfully.

Urd shook her head, "No. It's pure luck Apocalypse survived. Ranma can alter

the destiny of everyone he comes across. Even though him coming in contact with

Apocalypse and basically messing up his destiny, destiny still try and keep him

going down the right path. He was destined to test this world and kill many

Heroes in the process. Because of his encounter with Ranma it merely deviated

him slightly from the path he was destined to take,"

Beast said nothing.

Urd decided she had answered enough questions, "That's enough with the

questions. I think I'm done answering them,"

"But we have so much more to ask," Jean said.

"It doesn't matter," Urd said, "I've answered enough questions,"

new stuff 9/30

"But-" Jean tried to persist.

"You don't understand, do you?" Urd said, "You're never going to fully

understand everything. Much like the way Ranma explained it to you before, it's

the same way I'm explaining things to you as well. You're always going to have

questions that you want to ask and have answered but you're never going to

understand those answers,"

"We've asked you a lot about Ranma and who he is, but what about Apocalypse?"

Jean had to ask.

"He's alive and well," Urd said, "He basically watched all that that had

happened from a base he had on the moon, but don't worry about him, I'll deal

with him on my own terms,"

"How?" Jean asked.

"It doesn't concern you," Urd said.

"What does concern us?" Beast asked.

"After all that I've told you, I'm giving you all, as a collective, one

choice," Urd said, "Since Ranma looks highly upon everyone here, I'm giving you

all a choice. Rather than me undoing everything without a second thought, I'm

giving you the choice. Do you want the world to be undone all the way back to

the moment when Ranma and Asuka arrived or do you want the world to continue

moving forward?"

No one said anything.

"If I undo everything, none of you will ever remember what had happened," Urd

said, "It would be as if you had never met Ranma or Asuka. You would remember

everything all the way up to the very moment of their arrival on this world. The

difference is that they will not be showing up here and this world's intended

timeline would resume,"

Cyclops said, "You said several of us were destined to die fighting against

Apocalypse's army of sentinels had Ranma and Asuka not shown up, right?"

Urd nodded, "Yes,"

"So why would we want that to ever happen?" Cyclops said, "The choice is easy,

to not have everything undone,"

Urd said, "Of course, that seems like the logical choice. Afterall, everything

is done and over with and I've brought everything and everyone back. However,

this is the choice you must make. If you choose not to have anything undone, you

will forever know you're pawns,"

"What do you mean by that?" Jean asked.

"Just that," Urd said, "You will go on knowing about myself and Ranma and your

role. Not many people want to know that. The saying 'ignorance is bliss' holds

true in something like this. You will know of your role in the greater scheme of

things, that you were created SOLELY to fight against Ranma and die. Your

perception of this world will be forever different. You will never see this

world in the same way as you used to see it now that your eyes have been

opened,"

Beast said, "Ah, I understand. You definitely have a point. Ever since Ranma's

and Asuka's arrival, our eyes were opened up quite a bit to things we never knew

existed,"

Urd nodded, "Yes, my being here simply opens up your eyes even more to this

world and its creation and workings. The choice is yours, whether to go on

living from this point on knowing what you know or to live the lives you've

lived before all of this happened, basically completely ignorant of your role in

the greater scheme of things,"

Everyone was silent.

"Can you give us a minute to discuss this?" Cyclops figured everyone needed

time to figure their choice.

"Okay," Urd said, "Take all the time you want. Time isn't moving forward

outside this room. The entire world is basically frozen in time as you all

decide on the path you want this world to take,"

Captain America said, "That's a very heavy decision you want us to make, the

path this world shall go,"

Urd said, "In your eyes, maybe, but not from my point of view. I make

decisions like this every day, whether or not to create or destroy entire worlds

I've created. Anyway, simply because this is how Ranma would want it, for you

guys to be able to decide for yourselves, this is why you have a choice to begin

with. I would simply undo everything up to the moment before Ranma and Asuka

showed up and let this world go down its intended path,"

Urd walked over to where Shinji and Asuka and Ryoga stood, the both of them

silent until now as the sounds of an entire room full of Heroes could be heard

discussing the situation at hand with one another.

"I feel so outta place here," Ryoga said, "I haven't said a word since we got

here,"

"Don't worry," Urd said, "We'll all be leaving soon,"

Urd suddenly realized something she had been meaning to ask Shinji.

"What's the deal with this camera you were talking about?" Urd asked him,

remember she had been meaning to ask him about that before.

Shinji said, "Oh, yeah, that. I gave Ranma a camera a while ago, before he

left for this world. It just so happens that I was able to watch Ranma's

adventure from my own computer back home,"

"What?" Urd asked, "You're kidding me, right?"

"Use your powers if you don't believe me," Shinji said, "You'll realize that

that's what I've been doing the whole time,"

Urd's eyes widened, "Wait, you wouldn't happen to have gotten this camera from

Skuld, would you?"

Shinji shrugged, "I did ask Skuld for help and she made the camera for me.

So, yeah, I did get it from Skuld,"

"Whatever for?" Urd asked.

"A webpage I was making," Shinji said, "It was just a pet project I was

working on just for the sake of it. I never suspected that the camera I gave

Ranma would come in handy,"

Urd scratched her chin, "Hm, well, if Skuld made it, that can easily explain

away why you were able to see images over different worlds instead of merely

over vast distances,"

"What are you guys talking about?" Asuka asked.

"I gave Ranma a camera," Shinji said, "I use it to record his day onto my

computer back home. I use those recordings toward a webpage I've been working

on. It's pretty popular but I don't know if you've heard of it. It's called

'Random Encounters',"

Asuka thought about that moment. After a while, she recalled a conversation

she had had with some of her fellow college classmates. They had talked about a

hugely popular webpage that popped up on the Internet not too long ago that

focused on guy and his random encounters with girls. She recalled seeing Ranma

wearing a pin and she thinking that it might be a camera but she never really

thought all that deeply into it.

"Shinji, you're the one that runs that 'Random Encounter' page?" Asuka

gasped.

Shinji nodded, "Yeah,"

"And Ranma's the guy that goes around hitting on random girls?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah," he said, "But he doesn't go around hitting on girls. He just goes

about his day. I just weed through the video feed for those random encounters to

put them on my webpage,"

"And you've been watching those video from home?" Asuka started realizing

something.

Shinji nodded, "Yeah. Ranma wears a camera so I was basically seeing and

hearing what he was seeing and hearing,"

"T-that means you saw me naked you pervert!" Asuka glared at Shinji. Asuka had

been taking a shower back home a while back, before they came to this world, and

Ranma had seen her naked. If he was wearing a camera, that would mean Shinji was

able to see what Ranma had seen.

"Huh?" Shinji asked.

"You saw me naked!" Asuka stared getting angry.

"Wait, before you jump to conclusion," Shinji looked nervous.

"Well," Asuka said, "Did you see me naked like Ranma did?"

"Um, er, no," Shinji didn't think before he said, "You were only in your bra

and panties at the time,"

"Ooh, wrong answer," Urd grinned.

"You goddamn jerk!" Asuka slapped Shinji, sending Shinji's head cranking

toward one side, his cheek burning with pain, "You're some kinda voyeuristic

pervert!"

The room seemed to become deathly quiet as everyone within looked toward Asuka

as she continued to shout words toward Shinji.

"You're a goddamn peeping tom!" Asuka said.

Shinji was blushing a deep shade of red from embarrassment, "Hold up! I didn't

mean it like that!"

After a moment, everyone turned back onto their discussion.

"Yeah, right, Shinji," Asuka was not one bit convinced.

"Hold up!" Shinji said, "I never ever intended to do something like that. I

just wanted him to wear a camera for my webpage. It was supposed to be for

nothing more than him just talking to girls. You're blowing things out of

proportion,"

"I think I'm not," Asuka said, "You probably have that stuff recorded on your

computer,"

"That's because my computer records the video-feed automatically," Shinji

stated, "It's not like I recorded it purposely,"

"Shinji, maybe it's best you not say anything," Ryoga cautioned the young man,

"You're only making things worse for yourself,"

"What, you're siding up with Shinji?" Asuka glared at Ryoga, "Are you in

cahoots with him?"

"What?" Ryoga shouted, blushing "I am not! I know nothing about this!"

"Hmph!" Asuka didn't seem convinced.

"I'm telling you!" Ryoga said, "I'm not some pervert like Ranma or Shinji!"

Urd said, "Look, let's just forget about this. Enough with the bickering. I

was just curious about the camera and I got my answer,"

Asuka let out a snort of annoyance but said nothing, choosing to let it go for

now, much to Shinji's and Ryoga's relief.

Asuka turned her head away in disgust, "Wait until I get home and tell

everyone what you do, Shinji,"

Shinji sighed, realizing that it was useless to try and argue against Asuka.

Only Ranma seemed to be able to argue against her and actually win such

arguments.

Urd decided it was best to change the subject.

"Hey, Shinji, how do you feel about carrying out Ranma's mission?" Urd asked.

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.

"Ranma was originally here to acquire an adamantium engine," Urd said, "What

do you think about carrying out the task for him now that he's no longer here to

finish it off himself?"

Shinji said nothing for several long moments. Something like that had never

crossed his mind. He figured he was only there in the first place much like

Ryoga, to deal with Ranma.

"Um, I dunno," Shinji said nervously, "I don't really understand why that

would be the case. Wouldn't it be better for us to just ask Skuld for help

instead? She likes making stuff,"

Urd said, "I know, but considering Ranma plans on leaving you his legacy, it's

only natural that you take over and try and succeed where he's failed,"

Shinji's lips became a thin line.

"It wouldn't be all that hard," Urd smiled, "Everything on this world has done

and over with. You'll only have to stay here for a short time to acquire the

adamantium and make the engine,"

"I dunno," Shinji was very nervous of the thought.

"What could it hurt?" Urd asked, "Since you've been basically watching what's

going on from home, that means you should know everyone here even though you've

never actually met them,"

"Still..." Shinji was skeptic.

"Well, it's up to you," Urd didn't seem to mind.

"What's expected of me?" Shinji asked, feeling a bit odd about doing such a

task at hand. Sure, it had been a year since he had gone to a different world to

acquire Unit-01, which was actually completely useless against Ranma, and he

still felt like he needed a vacation from such an adventure. How the heck Ranma

could go adventuring one right after another was something Shinji believed he

would never understand fully.

Urd said, "Nothing much. You'll probably be here for no more than a week. When

time resumes, the battle at what they believe is Apocalypse's island will

continue on. At the rate it's going, it'll be won within several hours. From

there, all you have to do is go with the X-Men and Avengers to retrieve the

stash of adamantium they will discover stored there and bring it back here to

make the engine,"

"Are you sure?" Shinji asked.

"I'm pretty sure," Urd smiled, "Being God helps in the department of being

sure of something,"

"Well, I guess there's no harm in my carrying out Ranma's task then," Shinji

sighed.

Before long, Cyclops approached Urd, speaking on behalf of everyone there,

"We've all come to a decision,"

Asuka sighed as she looked out the window of her classroom.

She was back on her home world. Actually, it wasn't necessarily her home

world, the world where she was from. She was back in the world she called her

'home', the same world Ranma considered 'home', the same world Shinji and many

others considered 'home'.

A week had passed since she had gotten back home and today was the expected

day Shinji would be coming back home with the adamantium engine. Urd said that

today would be the day Shinji would be coming back and there was no reason for

Asuka to not believe her.

The X-Men and Avengers and other had had decided to remember everything and

let the world resume the current timeline. They feared that having everything

undone, as pleasing as it would be to be happy being ignorant of their role in

the greater scheme of things, the thought that many would die in the upcoming

events made them decide this was for the better. The group had decided it was

better for them to know of the truth and so long as it prevented the eventual

deaths of those destined to die in the upcoming battle should everything be

undone in the first place.

Urd had used her powers to fix the world up and give fake memories to those

not meant to be in the know of what had really occurred. She had actually sent

everyone in Antarctica to Apocalypse's island and altered the entire world's

memories to seem like Apocalypse's base had been discovered and they had all

gone there to stop Apocalypse before he did anything.

Urd had dealt with Apocalypse in her own special way, by altering his destiny

so that he would be found on the island and killed by one of the Heroes. Almost

everything was fixed with a few gestures of Urd's hands.

Unfortunately, not everything was fixed.

Ranma was no longer back, gone from the world once again. She knew he would be

coming back one day but had no real idea when. Everyone took the news very hard,

that Ranma was gone once again. They had gotten used to Ranma being around once

again and felt betrayed that he was gone before anyone really had a chance to

enjoy his company.

"Something the matter?" her friend Tomiko asked her.

Asuka turned her attention toward the girl, a bit startled, "Huh?"

"Class is over," Tomiko stated, "Is something the matter?"

Asuka took a moment to gather her thoughts, "Oh, nothing's wrong,"

"You've been all weird for the past week," Tomiko stated, "Heck, you even

failed that pop quiz the professor gave back yesterday. Something's definitely

wrong,"

"Well, let's just say I have a lot on my mind," Asuka said.

She really did have a lot on her mind. So much had happened over such a short

period of time. Heck, she didn't even care about getting a car anymore. In a

sense, she didn't want one anymore, believing her wanting a car in the first

place being the reason why Ranma is no longer around in the first place.

"Hey, you doing anything tonight?" her friend asked.

"Huh? What?" Asuka asked.

"You doing anything tonight?" Tomiko repeated, "A few of my friends and I are

going to see a movie tonight. You want to come along?"

Asuka shook her head, "Nah, but thanks anyway,"

"All right," Tomiko shrugged, heading for the door, "Anyway, if you change

your mind, give me a call. You have my number,"

"I'll keep that in mind," Asuka gave a slight smile, "Thanks,"

She watched as her friend left the classroom. She took her time collecting her

books before heading out for home, done with her classes for the day.

As Asuka crossed campus toward home, paying toward nothing in particular, she

heard a voice come from behind her.

"Hi there, Asuka," came a voice.

Asuka's eyes widened in surprise as she quickly turned around, believing it

was Ranma, that he was back. To see that he was back would definitely make her

day. No, it would make her entire week.

She looked up at the man and instantly realized that it wasn't Ranma. She

regarded the man for a bit, "How do you know my name?"

"We met not too long ago," the man said, "I'm Dustin,"

Asuka thought about the name for a moment, "Sorry, but it doesn't ring a

bell,"

"We've met twice before," the man said.

"What do you want?" she asked, a bit cold. She just wanted to be left alone.

"Well, I was just curious if you'd like to perhaps go grab a bite to eat," the

man smiled, persistent.

Asuka waved a dismissive hand, "Not interested,"

"C'mon, just a bite," the man continued to persist.

Asuka, annoyed as hell and just wanting to be left alone, reached out and

grabbed the man's wrist, twisting it at a very awkward angle, the man falling

down to his knees, a look of shock on his face. She implemented a technique

Ranma had taught her a while ago, as a way of warding off guys constantly

hitting on her and not getting the picture that she wanted them to leave her

alone.

"Leave me alone!" Asuka sneered.

"A-all right! All right!" the man winced in pain.

Asuka let go and shoved the guy and began walking away. A tear happened to

fall from her eyes as the technique she used reminded her of Ranma suddenly.

Anything that reminded her of Ranma made her feel sad. She felt this deep regret

that she is the sole reason why Ranma was gone. Had she not made the mistake of

going to Antarctica back on the other world, she would not had been killed. Had

she not been killed, Ranma wouldn't have lost himself and used his powers in an

act of pure anger, which resulted in his death.

"You fucking bitch!" came a sneer from behind her. It was obvious the man,

mortified at having been basically beaten up by a girl, acted out in anger to

try and salvage what little dignity she had left.

Asuka swung around to face the man, she walked straight toward him, stopping

right in front of him, "What did you just call me?"

"You heard me!" the man sneered angrily, "I didn't realize you were such a-"

Asuka struck the man's throat with a quick chop, the man instantly losing the

ability to breath. A look of panic came across the man's face as he tried to

gasp for air.

"No one calls me that!" Asuka snapped, "You don't know me! How dare you!"

She grabbed one of the man's arms and twisted it in a way that the man ended

up falling straight down to the ground on his stomach, his arm cranked backwards

behind him.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't break your shoulder!" Asuka said through

tears, filled with emotions, "You don't know me! I've seen and done things

you'll never see or do! You've got some nerve calling me some bitch!"

The man said nothing, terrified that his arm could very well be broken,

cranked back as far back as possible before the should would pop out of its

socket.

After a moment, Asuka let go, wiping the tears away from her eyes. She glared

at the man as he rubbed at his shoulder and looked up at her from the ground, a

shocked look on her face.

"That's twice I could've put you in a world of hurt," Asuka said, "And that's

twice I let you go. Try anything with me a third time and you'll regret it,"

The man said nothing for several moments before he quickly started scooting

away, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone,"

The man quickly fled away from Asuka, believing it was better to swallow his

pride rather than risk finding out the hard way that Asuka would seriously hurt

him if he tried anything afterwards.

After a moment, Asuka sighed before she turned around and began heading for

home.

She felt so unstable, a whirlwind of emotions.

"Ranma, when are you ever coming back?"

new stuff 10/1

Asuka walked home by herself.

She paused for a moment as she came across the car dealership she had been

looking into a while ago, where Ranma had caught sight of her gazing longingly

toward a beautiful red classic convertible that was located in the center of the

showroom floor. And because it was a gas-powered vehicle, that meant the car

pre-dated the year 2000.

The car was still there, sitting in the exact same place as she had seen weeks

before, waiting to be bought.

She didn't care about the car anymore. The thought of having her own car

thrilled her then, but nowadays, it seemed like having her own car was a trivial

matter.

Looking away in disgust, she headed on home. She didn't want a car anymore. In

a sense, her wanting a car in the first place was what had led to all of this,

led to Ranma going to the other world in hopes of acquiring an adamantium which

eventually lead to him getting corrupted and his inevitable death.

"Way to go, Asuka, two things you've wanted and both times it lead to Ranma

getting killed," Asuka felt said, wiping tears from her eyes, recalling the time

she wanted to go back to her own world to prevent Second Impact. Because Ranma

accompanied her, he ended up dying saving her.

"I'm such an idiot," she said. In a sense, Ranma had given her all that she

could possibly want, an entirely new life to start all over, but she had wanted

more. She had friends and even a family. Ranma and Akane were, in essence, very

much like her parents. Of course, she was weird because she was in love with her

'father' but she didn't care. It wasn't as if they were blood related.

She blushed as she recalled what she had said to Ranma with her dying words.

"My God, I-I told him I loved him," she said, very embarrassed.

She just stood there for a moment, contemplating that thought. After a short

while, she realized that she really didn't care anymore. She had no idea exactly

when she fell for Ranma, but she knew it was a long time ago.

In a sense, it felt rather liberating, to let it be known to him that she

really was in love with him.

She wondered how Ranma knew about her being in love with him all that time.

They were always at odds with one another. Heck, she was always angry toward

Ranma. Perhaps that was the only way she knew how to act toward Ranma. She had

gotten so used to being angry with Ranma that anything different would make her

feel weird which was probably why she denied the notion that she was in love

with him.

"Hey, Asuka," came a voice.

Asuka recognized the voice. She turned around to face her younger self, Asuka-

chan.

"Hey," Asuka smiled.

"Something the matter?" Asuka-chan asked. She was on her way back home from

high school and had caught sight of her older self hanging in front of the car

dealership and figured they could walk home together. Oddly enough, despite

being fiercely independent herself, Asuka-chan viewed Asuka as an older, wiser

sister.

Asuka said, "Nothing really,"

"What you mean by 'Nothing really' you really mean to say 'Ranma'?" Asuka-chan

smirked.

Asuka narrowed her eyes toward the younger girl before she sighed, "Yeah, I

guess,"

"When do you think he'll be coming back?" Asuka-chan asked.

"I dunno," Asuka said, "Urd said that it'll be a surprise,"

"So Ranma's definitely coming back?" Asuka-chan asked.

Asuka nodded, "Yes, but no one has an idea when. Urd won't tell us. I hope it

won't be another year before he shows up. He showed up after around a year

later, after he had been defeated by Shinji and Rei and Urd,"

Asuka-chan said, "Well, is a year so long to wait?"

Asuka said nothing, her lips a thin line for a moment.

"You heading home?" Asuka-chan asked, "Let's walk home together,"

"Okay,"

Everyone was gathered around the backyard of Ranma's house late at night. It

was around ten at night, the expected time Shinji would be coming back.

The atmosphere was that of quiet anticipation. Shinji had been gone for about

a week, on the other world to complete the task where Ranma had failed, to

acquire an adamantium engine.

The group, sad at the thought that it would not be Ranma coming back, was

relatively relaxed. Perhaps it was because they knew that Ranma would be coming

back one day that they felt more at ease, like they would be resuming their

usual daily lives once again after Ranma got back.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how the engine turns out," Lisa said eagerly.

"I'm sure it'll turn out fine," Bateau smiled warmly.

Lisa scratched her head, "Of course, if you think about it, an adamantium

engine would be too powerful for the rest of the car's components. The

transmission would break under the power the engine could generate,"

Bateau said, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. We will make do with

what we get,"

Even though Ranma was gone, the world had moved on. Lisa and Bateau, having

spent quite a bit of time together trying to come up with the plans for the

engine awhile ago, seemed to get along very well with one another. Everyone

believed that it would only be a matter of time before Lisa would lose her crush

on Ranma in exchange for a kind man like Bateau. Everyone, save for Lisa, seemed

to know that Bateau had developed a crush on her. It would be only a matter of

time before she realized it herself.

"We can always ask Skuld to help out and make the transmission and such so

other various car parts can support this engine," Ryoga suggested, not lost for

a change.

"That's cheating," Akane said.

"And acquiring a metal from another world is not?" Ryoga asked.

"I guess you have a point," Akane giggled.

Ryoga blushed as he inwardly smiled.

I made Akane laugh, Ryoga thought happily. Before long, Akane would stop

liking that cad, Ranma, for me instead.

Priss smiled, "I can't wait to see this engine. Maybe I'll take up driving a

car instead for a bit if Lisa's and Bateau's theory suggests that the engine can

generate fifty-thousand horsepower. That's a massive amounts of horsepower,"

"Horsepower doesn't really matter," Ritsuko said, "What really matters is

torque,"

"I know!" Priss laughed, "You're going to give me a lecture on engines and the

difference between horsepower and torque? Get real!"

The group started laughing. Rei even snickered slightly at the comment.

"Hey, maybe we should put the engine in the station wagon," Misato laughed,

"Then that car would really be hauling ass,"

The group laughed again.

"When does Shinji get back?" Asuka-chan asked eagerly.

"Urd said he'll be showing up in around ten minutes," Ritsuko looked at her

watch and quickly calculating the time it was now and the time of Shinji's

expected arrival.

Asuka-chan smiled, "I can't wait,"

Emiko glared toward the young girl. There was such a stark difference between

Asuka and Asuka-chan. Asuka could care less about Shinji. Oddly enough, since

Asuka-chan and Asuka were basically the same person, it vexed her how the

younger version could have such a crush on Shinji while the older version quite

the opposite.

"Will you quit liking Shinji?" Asuka said toward her younger self, "It'd

disgusting,"

"Why, what's wrong with him?" Asuka-chan retorted.

"He's engaged to me for one thing," Emiko said to Asuka-chan, holding up her

hand with an engagement ring on her ring finger.

Asuka-chan shrugged, "So?"

Everyone but Emiko burst out laughing.

"Does anyone know what's this surprise Urd has for us?" Akane asked no one in

particular, "She said something about how she's going to have a surprise in

store for us tonight,"

Asuka seemed hopeful, "You don't think the surprise is going to be Ranma

coming back?"

Everyone looked toward one another.

"You think that that can be the case?" Asuka asked.

Ritsuko said, "How's that possible? Time is needed to suppress that corrupt

version of himself. Urd stated that it would take at least a year of our time

for Ranma to return back to normal, where he isn't at risk of becoming corrupt

right away,"

Misato sighed, "You HAD to point that out, didn't you?"

Ritsuko said, "I was just stating the facts,"

"What do you think the surprise is?" Akane asked.

"I guess all we can do is wait," Ryoga said.

Linna said, "Hey, you don't think the surprise would be Urd resurrecting all

the other Ranma's? There are, what, like, five versions of him? You don't think

we might be able to meet all the Ranma's before this?"

"Really?" everyone seemed to say at once.

"Dibs on the one that came to our world," Misato said first, "Screw that, dibs

on all of 'em,"

"Get real!" every female there seemed to say at once.

Everyone started arguing with one another.

The argument didn't last long before everyone's attention was suddenly

distracted as a portal opened up right over the koi pond.

"Is it me or does everyone that appear here always appear over the koi pond?"

Ryoga asked.

"That sounds like something Ranma would say," Akane giggled.

"If I'm saying something Ranma says, then I guess I should feel the sudden

urge to beat myself up," Ryoga muttered in annoyance.

To everyone's surprise, Shinji didn't appear from the portal. Instead, it was

Urd. She ended up falling down the short distance from the portal down into the

koi pond.

A big splash occurred as Urd found herself sitting in the middle of the koi

pond, soaking wet. There was a look of surprise in her face as she realized

where she was.

"Man, maybe I made a big mistake," Urd muttered as she got up to her feet,

"Maybe Skuld isn't cut out to be God yet,"

"Are you okay?" Akane asked Urd as she proceeded to climb out of the pond.

Urd said, "I'm cold and I'm wet, so, no, I'm not,"

"You can get cold?" Ryoga asked, "How's that possible? You're God,"

"Not anymore," she said.

"What?" everyone said in absolute shock.

"I'll explain in a bit," Urd said, looking around for Luna, "Ah, Luna, can you

please dry me up?"

"Um, okay," Luna said, quiet until now. She stepped forward and cast a quick

spell over Urd which instantly dried up all her clothes. This surprised the

sorceress quite a bit because Urd, as God, was immune to everything, even magic.

For magic to work on her, that meant something.

"Did we hear you correctly?" Akane asked, "Did we hear you say that you're no

longer God?"

Urd nodded, "Yes, you heard correctly,"

There was nothing but silence.

"Care to elaborate?" Akane asked.

Urd looked around toward the portal that was still opened, expecting for

someone else to emerge from it. Everyone just looked at what she was looking at,

wondering what was going on.

After a minute, the portal disappeared.

"What the?" Urd's eyes widened in surprise.

"What's going on here?" Akane asked.

Urd said, "I guess I shouldn't be worried. Ranma will find his way here

somehow. He's done that before,"

"What's going on here?" Akane repeated herself.

Urd cleared her throat, "I'm no longer God. I relinquished my role as God to

Skuld,"

No one said anything.

"Um, you're kidding me, right?" Akane asked.

Urd shook her head, "No, I'm not,"

"Didn't you say that Skuld is not ready to take over the role of God?" Luna

asked curious, "I remember you mentioning something about Skuld probably needing

around thirty years of training before she's ready,"

"I did say that," Urd said, "But I decided to take a risk and let her become

God, even if it is about thirty years pre-maturely,"

"Your explanations don't help one bit," Akane said, "I'm pretty sure it's

making us more confused,"

"Fine, I'll make it easier for everyone," Urd snapped her fingers.

Nothing seemed to happen.

Urd sighed, "Man, I forgot, I no longer have God-powers like I used to,"

"What's going on here?" everyone shouted.

"I used my powers to cancel out Ranma's powers," Urd said, "After what

happened before on the other world, I decided that there is too much at risk so

long as there is even the REMOTEST possibility that Ranma can get corrupted

again. Ranma's been corrupted twice and two's enough. I burned out all my powers

negating Ranma's own powers,"

Ritsuko asked, "You can burn out your powers? You're God. You have infinite

power. How's that possible?"

Urd said, "I have infinite power. Ranma has infinite power. Infinite powers

can cancel out infinite powers. Only my powers can cancel out Ranma's, which I

managed to do,"

"This is unreal," Akane said, "What's going to become of us? Of everything? Of

existence?"

Urd said, "Don't worry, Skuld's taken over the role of God. She's a bit

inexperienced, but she'll get the hang of it,"

Everyone just stood there in silence.

"To put everything in as simple terms as possible, Ranma no longer has any

God-powers," Urd said, "Because of this, there is no longer any risk of him

becoming corrupt and trying to end existence. You all may think the choice I

made isn't that prudent, but I don't really care. With complete existence at

risk, the choice was a very easy one for me to make,"

"Where's Ranma?" Asuka asked, hopeful, "Is he coming back?"

Urd nodded, "Well, yes, he was supposed to pop up through the portal along

with me but that doesn't seem to be the case now that the portal's gone,"

"What does that mean?" Akane asked.

Urd shrugged, "Who knows? He probably ended up on a different world or

timeline or such. However, this is Ranma we're talking about so he'll find his

way back here,"

Akane asked, "How did Ranma end up in this other world or location?"

"Like I said, Skuld is inexperienced, she probably messed up the portal and

accidentally sent Ranma elsewhere" Urd said matter-of-factly, "I'm glad I showed

up here intact. I'm not like Ranma and I don't think I'll be able to find my way

back here on my own,"

Everyone seemed to just stare at Urd, mouths agape.

"That was the surprise," Urd said, "That the two of us show up at around the

same time as Shinji shows up. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as planned,"

Akane said, "Man, I can't believe it, you've given up all your powers to

negate Ranma's powers. What does that mean, that you're completely powerless?"

Urd shook her head, "No. It means I no longer have my God-powers. I possess

the same kind of powers I possessed before I became God,"

"You meant he powers of a Goddess then?" Akane asked.

Urd nodded.

"What about Ranma?" Akane asked, "Does that mean he has the powers he had

before he became God? As in possessing an AT Field and wings and such?"

Urd shook her head, "No. He's completely one hundred percent human. Of course,

with someone like Ranma, it's not like he needed an AT Field or wings anyway,"

"Wait, does that mean he can have children as well?" Misato had to ask.

Urd said, "I'm not going to answer that. I can't believe you would ask me such

a question like that,"

"What's going to happen to you?" Akane asked.

"I'm going to be living here with Akane and Ranma and such," Urd smiled

happily.

"What?" everyone gasped.

Urd grinned, "Hey, I gave up being God for Ranma. Him letting me live here's

the least he could do considering my sacrifice. What have YOU guys done for

Ranma that's better?"

Everyone said nothing.

"Actually, if you think about it, Urd became what she became because of

Ranma," Ritsuko said logically, "She was a Goddess before Ranma came along.

Ranma gave her the role of God when he stepped down. In a sense, Urd sacrificed

something Ranma gave her,"

Urd said nothing. Ritsuko did have a point now that she thought about it.

At that moment, a portal opened up right over the koi pond.

"See?" Ryoga said, "It's weird how portals open up over the koi pond,"

Everyone turned their gaze toward the portal, wondering who was going to be

emerging from it, hoping that it was going to be Ranma, that he had somehow

found his way back home.

From out of the portal emerged Shinji.

He gave a yelp in surprise as he fell down the short distance from the portal

down into the koi pond. Unlike Urd, he reacted quickly enough to land on his

feet, only his feet and the bottom portion of his pants getting wet.

"Shinji," everyone said, happy to see that he was back.

Shinji seemed to ignore everyone as he quickly realized something.

"Oh no!" he gasped.

He quickly lunged forward just as a giant adamantium engine emerged from the

hovering portal, pushed through from the portal's other side, and fell down

right where he had been standing a second ago. Water splashed everywhere,

soaking almost everyone, Urd becoming wet again.

Ryoga wasn't splashed wet for he reacted in time to open his bamboo umbrella

and protect himself from the water, an instinctive motion that he learned from

when he was young and cursed.

"Stop!" Shinji shouted back toward portal.

All of a sudden, a large adamantium transmission came through the portal,

falling down and landing on top of the engine block, falling down the side and

into the koi pond as well, becoming half submerged.

"Stop!" Shinji shouted at the portal again, toward the people on the other

side that were unaware that the portal was off the ground and were busy pushing

through all those adamantium parts through from the other side.

All of a sudden, three figures emerged from the portal. All three of them

yelped out in surprise as they fell down and landed in the koi pond, water

splashing everywhere again.

The portal suddenly disappeared.

There was complete silence as the group just stood there, wondering who those

three figures were.

Asuka's eyes widened as she recognized all three of them. The three

individuals that emerged from the portal were three members of the X-Men.

"Rogue! Psylocke! Beast! What are you guys doing here?" Asuka gasped.

"They're here to visit," Shinji said, "I hope no one minds,"

new stuff 10/2

"Who are you guys?" Misato said toward the group of three. She narrowed her

eyes toward the woman with flowing mane of purple hair. She didn't like the

thought of there being another woman among the group instead of herself and her

younger self having purple hair.

"They know Ranma," Shinji said.

"Wow, there're, like, no guys 'round here," Rogue noticed that there were only

four guys among the group of women, Shinji one of them. She recognized Ryoga as

the man that was seen hanging around Urd but knew nothing much about him outside

what Shinji had mentioned about him during his short stay on that world to

acquire the adamantium engine. She didn't recognize Carper or Bateau. All the

females there save for Urd she didn't recognize.

Beast looked around, wondering which woman there was the woman named Ritsuko

he had heard many things about. He had been eager to meet this woman, hoping she

was open-minded enough not to be scared off by his beast-like appearance.

However, from what Shinji had mentioned of her and everyone there, they had seen

so many things in their lives that they have gotten used to having an open-mind.

One needed an open-mind if they knew people like Ranma and probably seen things

Ranma had seen.

He spotted a woman with short blond hair that fit the description that Ranma

and Shinji had described.

However, he was surprised to see someone that looked the exact same as her

standing right next to her. This confused him because he thought he was seeing

doubles.

"The one on the left is the older version," Shinji said, his language

translated by the headset devices that Beast and Rogue now wore. Psylocke didn't

need one, she being fluent in Japanese.

"What did you say, Shinji?" Ritsuko narrowed her eyes at Shinji.

Ritsuko-chan laughed, "He does have a point. You are an older version of

myself, by around several years,"

"You two are twins?" Beast had to ask.

"Not quite," Ritsuko said, "She's a different version of myself from a

different world and timeline,"

"Reminds me of Cable," Psylocke commented to herself.

"This is Beast, Psylocke, and Rogue," Shinji gestured toward the group,

"They're from the other world,"

Everyone regarded the group, most of them looking at Beast.

"I know, my appearance is something not many people are used to," Beast said,

understanding everyone's reactions perfectly.

Akane shook her head, "Not really. Nene had hacked into Shinji's computer and

allowed us to see the images that had been recorded on the camera Ranma wore

with him,"

"Nene hacked into my computer?" Shinji's eyes widened in surprise.

"Only to retrieve the movie files that were recorded onto your computer that

Asuka said you had," Nene smiled, "Don't worry, it's not like I went snooping

around for those erotica images you have,"

"I do not keep those on my computer!" Shinji flushed a deep shade of red.

"Shinji!" Emiko shouted toward the young man, "I can't believe you do such

things on that contraption!"

Asuka smirked, "It's called a computer, Emiko. I know you come from a world of

magic and dragons and such, but jeez, get with the times already,"

Emiko glared at Asuka.

Nene realized she should had made that joke, "Don't worry, I was just joking

around. I found nothing of the sorts on your computers, which kind of surprises

me, I mean what guy doesn't have pornographic images or videos on their

computers?"

"I don't!" Shinji said vehemently. He wouldn't dare anyway. It wasn't as if he

could hide them on his computer anyway. He knew Nene was a master hacker and

nothing on his computer was safe if Nene really wanted to hack his computer.

"Anyway, we know of who Beast and Psylocke and Rogue are," Akane said, "We've

watched the video-feed of all that had occurred while Ranma was on that world.

We basically know them much like how you knew them even before you met them,"

Misato said, "If you think you're here to resume your date with Ranma that was

interrupted, you've got another think coming,"

"What?" Psylocke blushed for a moment before becoming angry, "I'll have you

know that I did not come here for that! Who the hell do you think you are making

such assumptions as that?"

"It seems we are at a disadvantage," Beast tried to change the subject, "It

seems you all know of us but we nothing of you,"

"I'm Akane," Akane stepped forward and gestured, "This here is Sylia, Linna,

Priss, Nene, Carper, Madigan, Jun, Bateau, Lisa, Motoko, Lina, Luna, Ritsuko,

Ritsuko-chan, Misato, Misato-chan, Rei, Asuka-chan, and last but not least,

Emiko. Ryoga, Shinji, Urd, and Asuka here I'm pretty sure you already know. We

use the 'chan' to refer to the younger versions of their respective selves to

avoid confusion,"

"So many names," Rogue said, realizing it was going to take her a while to

know all the names.

"Are you here visiting or did your world get destroyed and you have nowhere to

go but here?" Misato asked.

"We're just visiting," Beast answered, "We hope you don't mind putting up with

us for a short time,"

Most of the people in the group smiled. Beast was just as polite in person as

they had seen on the computer. His beast-like exterior definitely belied the

gentle person inside.

"No, not at all," Akane smiled, "Unfortunately, our house is kind of full so

if you need a place to crash, you're going to have to sleep in the dojo until we

can figure out arrangements,"

"I'll stay in the dojo. I don't mind," Shinji said, "They can share between

Ranma's room and my room,"

"That won't be necessary," Urd spoke up, "Ranma will be coming home. He'll be

joining the world of the living once again and really soon,"

Rogue and Psylocke looked at one another, this look of happy surprise on their

faces.

"Really?" Shinji said in surprise, "When did this happen?"

"Today," Urd said, "I gave up my role as God to negate Ranma's powers. Because

of that, he can come back without everyone having to wait,"

Shinji did a double take, "D-did you just say you gave up your role as God?"

Urd shrugged, "Hey, you know the saying, 'Easy come, easy go',"

"If you're not God then who-" Shinji began.

"Skuld," Urd said.

"Um, are you sure that's a good idea?" Shinji asked, "Didn't you say that it

would take around thirty years for her to get the hang-"

"I know what I said," Urd interrupted, "I used to be God, you know. It was a

decisions I decided on and will not regret making,"

Beast had to ask, "You're no longer God?"

Urd nodded, "Right, I'm no longer God. I gave the role of God to my sister,"

Beast rubbed at his temples, "We really shouldn't ask why, should we? Because

it will be beyond our comprehension?"

Urd shook her head, "Actually, quite the opposite. You should be able to

understand it pretty easily. I used my powers to negate Ranma's powers. We

basically cancelled each other's powers out so we no longer retain our God-

powers. That way, there is no longer a chance of Ranma's powers corrupting him

and him coming after me to try and kill me,"

"But you're God," Beast said, "Why would you make such a decision like that?"

"I just told you," Urd said, "I gave my powers up to negate Ranma's powers,"

Shinji said, "Man, this is some pretty heavy stuff. What, did you not like

being God and decided to hand the role to someone else?"

"Jeez, does no one hear me?" Urd threw her hands up in the air, "I did it to

negate Ranma's powers. Because of that, there is no more chance of him getting

corrupted and us having to deal with a corrupted Ranma again,"

Ryoga said, "I would have no problems fighting against that jerk again,"

"In case you haven't noticed, Ranma stabbed you and killed you," Urd said,

"And don't you go saying it was just a flesh wound,"

Ryoga said, "So? Even if he did do that to me, it doesn't mean I'm scared of

him or anything,"

"I'm still confused," Shinji scratched his head.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure Rogue and Psylocke and I are confused as well,"

Beast said.

Urd took a deep breath, "I decided only a short while ago to relinquish my

role as God to Skuld. After I did that, I used the God-powers that I still

retained despite my role being relinquished, and used it to negate Ranma's own

powers. Keep in mind that once you become God, you retain those powers. Since I

retain my powers much like Ranma, I simply used mine to negate Ranma. In a

sense, we burnt each other's powers out,"

Shinji said, "Hey, does that mean Rei still retains her God-powers? She was

God before. Wouldn't it have been better to use your powers to negate not only

Ranma's powers, but Rei's as well?"

Urd scratched her head, "Damn, I never thought about that. But there's nothing

much to worry about, I'm sure we can find a way to get rid of her powers. The

worst case scenario is for Skuld to used her powers to negate Rei's powers,"

"Then who's going to take over for God?" Akane asked.

Urd shrugged, "Who knows?"

Everyone save for Beast, Rogue, and Psylocke fell to the ground from shock.

Beast realized something, "Wait, you said you're no longer God and no longer

retain your God-powers, right?"

Urd proceeded to get back to her feet, "That's right, what about it?"

"How are you going to bring back Logan?" he asked.

"Huh?" Urd asked.

"Well, you made Logan disappear back on our world," Beast said, "You said you

were going to bring him back. Have you forgotten to bring him back?"

Urd's eyes widened in surprise, "Oh man, I did make Logan disappear, didn't

I?"

Beast nodded, "Yes,"

"Jeez, how come you didn't remind me?" Urd nearly shouted.

"Because you're God," Beast said, "How were we to know that God needed to be

reminded of things like that?"

Shinji's eyes widened, "Logan's still gone? I thought he went on some kinda

training trip like Ryoga does which is why I didn't see him around. Urd, you

made Logan disappear and forgot to bring him back! Now you don't have the power

to bring him back! How are we gonna get him back?"

Urd scratched her head, "I have no idea,"

No one said anything.

"Actually, might it be possible to have Skuld do it for you?" Ritsuko asked,

"Since she's now God and has God-powers, doesn't that mean she has the ability

to do so?"

Urd smiled, "Ah, that makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're no longer God and can't rely on your God-powers to suddenly

make you know the answers?" Shinji smirked.

Urd glared at Shinji, "Care to say that again more loudly this time around?"

"I-I was just kidding," Shinji held his hands up defensively, taking a step

back.

"Well, since it seems like we can have Skuld bring back Logan, what about

Rei's powers?" Akane asked, "Is there any way to get rid of them?" She turned

toward Rei, "You don't want your powers, right? You just want to live normally

like the rest of us? Or at least like most of us?"

Rei shrugged, "It doesn't bother me. I feel I live normally now anyways,"

"Wouldn't it be good to have Rei keep her powers?" Misato asked, "That way, we

would have an 'undo' button nearby in case things get really bad,"

"You're worse than Ranma!" Sylia said, "I can't believe you said that!"

"Man, if Ranma finds out about this, he's probably going to use it as another

excuse to go to another world, to find a way of negating Rei's powers," Shinji

stated.

Akane asked toward Urd, "And speaking of Ranma, where is he?"

Urd shrugged, "I really don't know. He was supposed to show up with me,"

"But he didn't," Emiko stated.

"My, aren't we observant today?" Asuka said.

"What did you say?" Emiko snapped toward Asuka.

Shinji pinched the bridge of his nose. Just how long were Emiko and Asuka

going

to continue having animosity toward one another. They were like the female

versions of Ranma's and Ryoga's animosity toward one another.

"I wanna see Uncle Ranma," Jun squeaked, quiet until now. She didn't really

understand what all the adults were talking about. She didn't really care. It

was rather odd that she didn't seem to freak out or get excited at the sight of

seeing Beast. Perhaps because she was very tired and wasn't really all that

aware of what was going on around her.

Akane turned toward Jun, "Honey, Ranma will be back soon,"

"When?" she asked curiously. She wasn't even aware of what had happened to the

other world, that he had been killed. She had been told that Ranma went on a

training trip and would be back soon but never gave a time.

"He'll be back soon," Akane felt sad that Jun was being lied to. But then

again, she was still young and wouldn't really understand everything so perhaps

this was for the better.

Jun yawned, "I miss Ranma. He's been gone for a couple weeks,"

"I know, but he'll be back soon," Akane said softly, "Hey, why don't you have

Mommy bring you inside to the guestroom? It's way past your bedtime,"

Madigan walked over an picked up Jun in her arms, "Akane's right, it's way

past your bed time,"

"I dun'wanna go to sleep," Jun yawned again.

Madigan smiled toward Shinji, "It's good to see you back, Shinji,"

"Thanks," Shinji smiled.

"It was nice meeting you," Madigan said to Beast, Rogue, and Psylocke.

Carper excused himself as well, disappearing into the house with Madigan and

Jun. It seemed like they would be spending the night before heading on home

which was pretty far away.

After the three of them were gone, everyone turned toward Shinji as he was

looking down at the engine and transmissions currently still in the koi pond.

"Well, it seems like you've succeeded in getting the adamantium engine," Asuka

commented.

Shinji nodded after a moment, "Yeah, and a transmission to go with it. On the

other world, I found out a powerful engine would be useless without a

transmission that could handle the power. That why it took me about a week to

get back home,"

"Well, it's good to know that you're back in one piece," Akane smiled, "That

other world treated you okay?"

"Thanks," Shinji said, "Yeah, everyone treated me really well,"

"Are you guys sure no one would mind you visiting this world for a few days?"

Akane asked curiously, "The world you live it seems very...battle-prone. Are

you sure you guys won't be needed back on your home world?"

Psylocke said, "Highly unlikely that we'd be needed. The X-Men and Avengers

have actually came together to form a single cohesive team instead of two

independent teams,"

"The X-Men and Avengers combined teams?" Asuka asked in surprise.

"Yes," Beast nodded, "We now work together instead of independently. Even

though it had only been a week since everything had happened, our world's eyes

had been opened up. The battle against Apocalypse made the world realize that

mutants...um, I mean gifted humans and others could work together. I'm sure,

but it will take us a long time to get used to not using the word 'mutant',"

Urd waved a dismissive hand, "Don't worry about it. It doesn't bother me. It's

a relative term that refers to your world. Because you're on a different world

now, such a term like 'mutant' would probably be more useful than not,"

"That's good to hear," Beast smiled, "Because I'm sure we're all going to have

problems keeping ourselves from using the word 'mutant' completely,"

Akane gestured toward the engine and transmission, "Ryoga, can you do us a

favor and bring those parts into the garage?"

"Sure," Ryoga said.

Everyone watched as Ryoga walked up and picked up the transmission and engine,

each with one arm. He made no strain whatsoever lifting those very heavy

components.

"H-he didn't even struggle," Rouge was very impressed. The adamantium engine,

being made of adamantium, was probably twice as heavy as a normal engine of that

size. Sure, she could lift that weight with no problem, but even she would need

to grunt a bit to lift such weight. The fact that he did it with one hand while

lifting an equally heavy transmission meant that Ryoga was probably a lot

stronger than anyone had originally figured he to be.

"Do you think the engine will win us the contest?" Shinji asked, "We've still

have a car to make for the contest, y'know,"

"Does it matter?" Lisa smirked, "At this point in time, the contest is moot,"

"I'm just curious," Shinji said.

"It really doesn't matter," Akane said, "The results of the contest are

trivial. Anyway, c'mon, let's head inside. Beast, Rogue, Psylocke, we'll show

you around. I'm very sure you'll grow to like this world.

"Thanks for your hospitality," Beast said.

"Yeah," Rogue said, "Thanks,"

"Yes, thank you for seeing to us," Psylocke said.

Everyone began heading for the house but didn't get far before something

distracted them.

A portal suddenly opened up right over the group, causing everyone to stop and

look up curiously at what was going on.

"What the?" everyone seemed to say, looking straight up at the portal.

The portal disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind the

shadowy silhouette of a lone figure. Gravity instantly took effect as that

figure fell down toward the ground, twisting in the air skillfully and landing

right by the koi pond.

Everyone regarded the figure. It only took a second for everyone to recognize

who it was. Only one person wore a red Chinese shirt and black sweat pants and

had a hair-style done up in a pig-tail.

"Ranma, you're back" Akane said in disbelief

"I'm finally back," Ranma smiled happily, "God, it's really good to be home.

Man, what an adventure I had trying to get back home. You wouldn't believe where

I've spent the past few months of my life-"

Ranma was interrupted as Asuka slammed into him, burying her head into her

chest, hugging him as if she was scared that letting go would mean he would

disappear once again. The week he was gone actually felt like an eternity and

made her wonder how she managed to get by a whole year without him like last

time.

"Ranma, y-you're finally back," Asuka began sobbing uncontrollably.

Ranma gave a warm smile as he wrapped his arms around Asuka, "Yeah, I'm back,"

He glanced past Asuka's shoulders where he saw Rogue and Psylocke.

"Well, I'll be," Ranma grinned, "What brings you here to this world?"

"We were just visiting," Rogue tried to act nonchalant. She, much like

Psylocke, had felt this odd urge to just run up to him and embrace him, glad to

see him. This was because things felt really dull back on her world ever since

Ranma was gone. It wasn't that Shinji was boring or such, far from it. It was

just that they had grown to actually miss Ranma's annoying antics.

"Urd said that you no longer have any powers," Akane said, "Is that true?"

Still holding Asuka, Ranma said, "It's true. No more powers. No more AT Field,

no more wings, no more nothing. I'm what I used to be, one hundred percent

human,"

After a moment, Asuka broke her embrace and looked longingly up toward Ranma.

To everyone's surprised, she stood on her toes and brought her lips up to kiss

Ranma.

Everyone gasped.

"Hey, what gives?" Psylocke said softly to Rogue, "I thought Ranma was only

her guardian. That sure don't like a kiss some girl would give her guardian,"

Ranma's eyes widened in shock as he realized Asuka was kissing him. He ended

up flailing his arms in surprise and stepping backwards, tripping over the rocks

surrounding the koi pond, falling down into the pond, Asuka along with him.

"Whatcha do that for?" Asuka, soaking wet, got to her feet, angry.

"Me?" Ranma pointed to himself, "Why're y'getting angry at me?"

Asuka kicked stomped Ranma in the chest, sending him back down where he ended

up getting submerged for a second, before she turned around and stormed away and

into the house.

"Argh! Chicks! You can't live with them! Period!" Ranma shouted up toward

the sky, getting up in frustration in the pond.

"What did you say?" Psylocke felt offended at the commented.

"Ah resent that," Rogue narrowed her eyes toward Ranma.

Everyone glared at Ranma, some jealous of what Asuka had done, some angry at

him for that sexist comment.

He had been on this world for not one minute and he seemed to have already

pissed off all the females there.

Ranma pinched the bridge of his nose, "Y'gotta be kidding me,"

"Look, let's get angry at Ranma later," Akane suggested, "There's plenty of

time for that,"

"What, you're gonna save your animosity toward me for a rainy day or

something?" Ranma asked.

"C'mon, let's all head into the house and discuss what's going on," Akane

said, "There are a lot of things we all need to talk about,"

Ranma shrugged, "I guess you have a point,"

Together everyone headed for the house, eager to hear about where Ranma had

been and how he got home.

"So tell us, where have you been?" Akane asked, "You said you had spent a few

months on some different world before you came here. What world did you end up

visiting this time around?"

Ranma smiled warmly, "Are you sure you guys wanna hear it? It's a long story,"

"We've got time. And we're used to long stories," everyone seemed to say.

Ranma laughed, "Okay, let's head in then. You won't believe what you're going

to hear,"

Together, everyone headed into the house, eager to hear what story Ranma would

be telling them, eager to hear what adventure he had been on. Ranma had been

accidentally sent to some other world instead of to this world like he was

supposed to and everyone was eager to know what world he had been on before

finally finding his way back home.

And what adventure had Ranma been on before he finally made it back home?

Where had Ranma been for a few months of his life prior to making it back to the

world he called home?

That was a story for another day.

Rogue relaxed in the bathtub, enjoying the soothing warm water that surrounded

her. She stayed in the tub for a good ten minutes before she decided it was

about time that she got out. She was pretty sure someone else would be waiting

to take a shower or so and wanted to be considerate.

As she was getting out of the tub, the door to the bathroom slid open to

reveal a stark naked Ranma, a towel slung over one of his shoulders.

"Eek!" Rogue shrieked in embarrassment, quickly covering her chest and

ducking down into the water.

"Too late, I saw EVERYTHING," Ranma grinned, casually bringing the towel down

to wrap it over his waist. Because Rogue wasn't wearing her headset device, she

didn't understand a word he was saying nor he her.

"Get out!" she shouted toward him.

Ranma jerked a thumb toward the door, "Y'do know that there's a sign that

you're supposed to hang on the door, right? That's to prevent something like

this from happening,"

Ranma's words were falling upon deaf ears, Rogue unable to understand what he

was saying.

Not really knowing what to do, Rogue did the first thing that every woman

would do, throw things at Ranma to get him to leave. She picked up a nearby

bucket and threw it straight toward Ranma's head with deadly force.

Ranma caught it casually, "Ha, I've been through these situations before. I've

got too much experience with these situations to ever get hit by randomly thrown

objects,"

Rogue threw the bar of soap sitting nearby, Ranma catching it as well.

"Told ya," Ranma smiled

To Ranma's surprise, the bar of soap was slippery and it slipped out of his

hands moments after he caught it. What happened caught Ranma and Rogue by

complete surprise.

The bar of soap fell toward the ground, Ranma stepping forward to catch it and

missing, accidentally stepping on the soap. He ended up slipping on said soap

and staggered forward trying to keep his balance. Unfortunately, he was unable

to do so for he ended up tumbling over the edge of the bathtub and into the

bathtub as Rogue was still in it.

He ended up falling down on top of her, both hands landing on top of her bare

breasts, the two of them both becoming submerged under the water. Ranma was able

to quickly recover himself and resurface, Rogue resurfacing seconds later, this

terrible blush on her cheeks.

"Before you jump to conclusions, none of this was my fault," Ranma sat in the

bathtub with her, him now naked as well, his towel having fallen off.

Rogue just stared at Ranma with a look of shock on her face. After a good

minutes, she started to realize what had just happened. Ranma had just groped

her while she was naked.

In a moment of clarity, Rogue recalled that Ranma was now completely human, no

longer possessing God-powers. That meant Ranma was also susceptible to her

mutant powers. She could absorb his powers and knock him out that way.

"You'll pay for that!" Rogue sneered coldly.

She reached out and grabbed a hold of one of Ranma's arms.

Ranma paused as he felt all his battle aura getting drained from him. Oddly

enough, perhaps in a masochistic kind of way, it reminded him of Hinako-sensei

and her Happo-go-yen-satsu technique.

"Wow, that tickles," Ranma chuckled, feeling all his life energy being drained

from him. It definitely felt nostalgic, so nostalgic that he didn't even both to

break the hold.

Rogue's eyes widened as her mutant powers kicked in as Ranma's life force was

suddenly drained from him. Oddly enough, what happened next was something she

was no prepared for. When her mutant powers took effect, it started absorbing

Ranma's powers, starting off with absorbing his ki.

When Ranma's ki entered her body, it created a wave of pleasure that seemed to

transcend beyond pure ecstasy. The ki was a pure form of energy that, when it

entered her body, gave Rogue a feeling of pleasure that she believed had to be a

sin to feel. Nothing that felt that good could possibly not be sinful.

After a moment, Ranma decided enough was enough and broke Rogue's hold of him

with a simple flick of his arm. He couldn't help but feel a bit weaker now than

before but it didn't really worry him.

He had dealt with power-draining abilities before and actually gotten used to

it. Something like Rogue trying to drain his powers he didn't really worry

about. To him, it felt no different that when he dealt with Hinako-sensei so

long ago. Of course, because he had to deal with her powers on a constantly

basis for so very long, he grew so used to it that it stopped really bothering

him.

Ranma looked at Rogue, about to grin at her and taunt her that her mutants

powers had no real effect on him but noticed this disoriented look on her face.

He recognized that look. It was the look of complete disorientation, the same

kind he remembered Misato had when he pressed her Big-O pressure point.

Something suddenly dawned on Ranma.

"Whoa, if you touch me, you feel the Big-O?" Ranma asked.

Rogue was still in a fuzzy state of mind, still disoriented, believing she had

died and gone to Heaven. After a moment, her thoughts slowly started coming back

to her.

When she realized Ranma was still in front of her and where she was and what

had happened, she started getting angry again and tried to make him pay for

groping her. When she grabbed him a second time, she felt the exact same ecstasy

as she did before.

Ranma quickly broke the hold again and scrambled out of the bathtub.

"This can not be happening to me," Ranma said to himself, running out of the

bathroom. When he saw Rogue's face a second time as the second wave of pleasure

struck her, he realized that it seemed like Rogue was getting some kinda 'Big-O'

side-effect every time she tried to absorb my powers.

"R-Ranma, come back here! What did you do to me?" Rogue, her mind in a haze,

got out of the tub to chase after him. It seemed to have registered in her mind

that touching him seemed to produce those euphoric effects and she wanted more.

Ranma ran for his life, realizing that Rogue was probably going to be chasing

him for the remainder of her stay, all so she can try to absorb his powers once

again.

"Why does all this kinda shit happen to me?" he said to himself.

As he rounded a corner, he ended up bumping into Psylocke, falling down on top

of her in a fashion that, had she not been wearing clothes, he would had

accidentally penetrated her.

Psylocke's eyes widened as she felt Ranma's manhood accidentally pressing

against the private area of her outfit. It took a moment for Psylocke to realize

that Ranma had both hands on her chest as she lay on her back, Ranma having

accidentally grabbed them when they fell.

After a moment, she realize Ranma was naked.

"Ranma! You pervert!" Psylocke sneered.

She suddenly realized Ranma was human and was susceptible to her mutant

powers.

"You'll pay for that!" Psylocke said, conjuring a psychic blade from her fist,

jamming the blade right into Ranma's chest, intent on knocking him out.

Ranma yelped in surprise as he felt the blade enter his chest. It didn't hurt.

It just surprise him because it felt very much like a nasty static electricity

shock.

Psylocke yelped in ecstasy when this massive wave of pleasure that felt

significantly better than the time Ranma had popped her joints and such

enveloped her entire body, her body becoming stiff from the sensations.

Ranma's eyes widened as he noticed the look on Psylocke's confused face. It

was the same look of disorientation that Rogue had had a second ago.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Ranma said, realizing that it seemed like

whatever it was that Psylocke had stabbed him with seemed to have the exact same

side-effect on Psylocke as Rogue's powers seemed to have on her as well.

Ranma realized Rogue was in pursuit and realized he needed to run away and

decide on what to do. He quickly got up to his feet and ran by as Psylocke was

still collecting her thoughts and slowly coming to the conclusion that what she

had done to Ranma seemed to have given her that wave of pleasure and that it was

most likely repeatable.

"Get back here, Ranma! What did you do to me?" Rogue shouted after him, a

towel wrapped around her, flew right by Psylocke.

"Ranma, get back here! What did you do to me?" Psylocke got to her feet, to

chase after him as well.

Ranma, stark naked, ran out the back door.

However, before he had a chance to jump over the outer wall surrounding the

house, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of him. Because Ranma had been

in a full sprint, he wasn't able to stop in time. He ended up running right into

that bright lights, crashing into the figure that had suddenly appeared because

of it.

Ranma ended up tumbling to the ground, landing on top of the figure.

Ranma gazed down at who he had bumped into. After a moment, his eyes widened

in surprise as he realized he was looking down at both Jean and Storm. Jean and

Storm were both looking up at him with a look of shock on their face. He looked

down at his hands and realized his one of his hands was on one of Jean's breasts

while his other hand was on one of Storm's breasts. He was also on top of the

both of them such that his thighs were right up against their private areas.

"Oh boy!" Ranma realized he was in trouble.

"What are you doing to my wife?" came a shout.

Ranma looked over toward the side where he saw Cyclops reaching up to touch

his visor. He had no idea what Cyclops had said, but he had a funny feeling it

had something to do with the uncompromising position he was in with Jean.

A quick glance around and he realized that Cyclops wasn't the only one there

as well. Nightcrawler was there also, a look a surprise on his face.

It turned out that Mr. Fantastic had found a way to create a device that would

open up a portal to Ranma's world and all the X-Men had decided they were due

some vacation time and visiting Ranma's world sounded like a fun idea.

Ranma quickly got up to his feet, ready for anything, ready to dodge whatever

optic blast Cyclops was about to shoot out.

"Ranma, you're naked!" Storm realized, her foreign words lost.

Ranma looked back and saw Psylocke and Rogue emerge from the house, heading

straight toward him.

"Sorry, but I can't stay and chat," Ranma said.

He quickly sprinted forward and leapt over the wall, disappearing into the

night.

Jean and Storm took a moment to collect their thoughts. After a second, they

realized what had happened, a naked Ranma had just groped them.

"Ranma, get back here!" Jean and Storm and Rogue and Storm shouted as they

took off after Ranma.

Ranma, stark naked, sprinted down the street.

"Why the hell does this crap always happen to me?"

The end

The last scene didn't need to be in there but I decided to leave it in rather

than delete it. It ends this story with a bit of humor, giving you guys the

notion that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Oddly enough, I

lost interest in working on this fanfic at around the point where Ranma and the

others were on their way to Apocalypse's island. That was, what, 400+kbs ago. I

just continued on writing even though I lost interest on finishing this fic long

ago. I'm sorry if the ending seems a bit rushed, but considering I've lost

interest in finishing this fic around 400+kbs ago, you can't really blame me.

Hopefully, the ending didn't seem hideously rushed. This story was originally

supposed to end with Ranma and company finding Apocalypse and defeating him on

his island and everyone going home. Oddly enough, that kind of ending seems

hardly a JWD-style of conflict as people probably have gotten used to which is

why I added the entire Antarctica arc. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the

story. Please email me your comments if possible^_^

.

AIM:JeffOneShotWong

ICQ:5594272


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